By
– August 6, 2012
This multi-perspective tale tells of the experiences of two young people, Frank and Hannah, during World War II. Readers are urged to read Frank’s side of the story first. He is an English boy from London’s East End who experiences the Blitz during World War II as an adventure until some of his friends are killed and he sees the full extent of the devastation. When Frank and his younger sister, Vi, are evacuated to a farm, they meet Hannah, a German-Jewish refugee. Hannah’s side of the story, which is read by flipping the book over, is intended to be a counterpoint to Frank’s because her wartime experiences in Nazi Germany have been so much more awful. He is English, patriotic, and all but ignorant of Jews. Hannah is a Kindertransport refugee and suspected of being a German spy because of her origins and accent. Only an understanding teacher fully realizes Hannah’s plight, and she causes the other children in class to empathize with her. Each of the stories ends abruptly so neither is particularly satisfying: at the end of Frank’s story, Hannah is arrested as a spy and at the end of Hannah’s story, she is released. Although we know that both of their fathers have been killed, we are left wondering about both Frank and Hannah as the war moves on and finally ends. An additional purchase for ages 10 – 12.
Linda R. Silver is a specialist in Jewish children’s literature. She is editor of the Association of Jewish Libraries’ Jewish Valuesfinder, www.ajljewishvalues.org, and author of Best Jewish Books for Children and Teens: A JPS Guide (The Jewish Publication Society, 2010) and The Jewish Values Finder: A Guide to Values in Jewish Children’s Literature (Neal-Schuman, 2008).
