Ilona was nine years old, enjoy­ing Poland’s last peace­ful sum­mer before the Nazi inva­sion of 1939. Young friends, cousins, aunts and uncles, games and sum­mer plea­sures filled her life with sat­is­fac­tion. Her inter­est cen­tered on her small pro­tect­ed uni­verse under the gar­den trees. Summer’s end was punc­tu­at­ed with bomb­ings, how­ev­er, run­ning into shel­ters and don­ning gas masks. Her father, off to fight against the Rus­sians, had now found sanc­tu­ary in Rus­sia. She and her moth­er were to flee escort­ed by two guides, and after being desert­ed by them, with a lift from Russ­ian sol­diers— to Rus­sia. Food was scarce. Com­pe­ti­tion for space was fierce, but Mama was indomitable. She found a way for them to sur­vive in starv­ing, freez­ing Rus­sia, togeth­er or sep­a­rat­ed for a while when Illona had to live in an orphan­age. Sim­ply writ­ten and suit­able for chil­dren from 12 up, as well as for adults.