BookPikks

 Note:  I found and read this book because the publisher (Academy Chicago Publisher) recommended it for my reading list.

Julian was only 7 years old when the Nazis invaded Poland, and he fled Warsaw with his mother whom he barely knew, and his aunts and cousins.  Although Julian and his family were Jewish, Julian’s beloved governess Kiki had taught Julian of God’s love for Catholics and disregard for Jews.  Thus, Julian secretly in his 7-year-old heart was a Catholic.  Julian’s thoughts and misunderstandings on God and religion form a welcome break from the brutality of the war swirling around him.  One passage in particular describes the Trinity from a  child’s mindset:

Over the next two years or so, I learned from Kiki about God and Mary, their little boy Jesus, and the Holy Ghost.  This last, I saw from pictures, was like a white pigeon that they had.  This, I supposed, was like the canary that I was going to get some day when I was old enough.

Julian’s mother was an amazingly strong and intelligent woman.  Although she was used to being pampered and cared for, when it came to the survival of her family, she did whatever it took to keep her and her son alive.  This memoir recalls the basic story of Julian’s escape from Poland.  But beyond that, it shows two important transformations in Julian’s young life.  First, Julian’s attitude towards his mother changes from disregard and embarrasment to love and respect.  Second, due to his mother’s influence, Julian discovers that God doesn’t hate people just because they aren’t born Catholic–God loves everyone.

Due to the nature of the book (a memoir) parts of the book read a bit slow, as Padowicz includes more detail than a fiction writer would.  But because of the detail and his memory of small incidents (accidentally receiving his first sausage sandwich, jumping in the hay loft) the story has an authentic feel, and has a true child’s perspective on some horrible times.

Burch recounts the tragic period in his childhood, beginning at age 8 when he is dropped off at an orphanage without explanation by his mother.  Burch is then bounced from institution to home to foster home and back to institutions for the next several years.  He never knows if or when he will see his family again, and his only comfort is an old stuffed animal taken from an orphanage.  Burch struggles to learn the rules in every new place that he visits, but the hardest rule to accept comes from a boy his own age:

“There ain’t no friends in here. . . It’s like this.  If you got a friend in here and they go away someplace, then you’re left by yourself, alone.  And if you keep making friends and they keep going away, then over and over again, you’re alone. . . It hurts.”

But in spite of this rule, and in spite of the abandonment and abuse that Burch repeatedly experiences, he eventually learns to love and receive love.

Siegal writes powerfully of her experiences as a Jewish child in Hungary as Hitler came to power. The horror of the Nazi regime, and the power of love and family come to life.

I’ve read a number of books, written from the Korean perspective, about the Japanese occupation of Korea (Lost Names by Richard E Kim; Whem My Name was Keoko by Linda Sue Park; Home Was the Land of Morning Calm by K. Connie Kang; Year of Impossible Good-byes and sequels by Sook Nyul Choi). This is the first book I’ve read that tells of the hardships suffered by the Japanese citizens who lived in Korea at the end of World War II.

Yoko Kawashima and her family lived in northern Korea. When World War II ended, they were trapped between communists moving down from Russia, angry Koreans who wanted their homeland back, and the Japanese military who weren’t ready to give up. Yoko, her mother and sister make the dangerous journey south to Seoul and then on to Japan. But once they get to Japan, their struggles aren’t over. Homeless and separated from family, they must struggle to survive. This was an amazing story of strength in the face of adversity, and honor in spite of a world gone mad.

A fascinating memoir about the author’s five year banishment to Siberia. Esther and her family were Jews who lived in Vilna, Poland. At the outset of WWII, when Russia and Germany were still allied, Russian soldiers invaded her town, labeled her family as “capitalists” and shipped them off to be slave laborers in the gypsum mines of Siberia. Esther’s family faced slavery, starvation, frostbite, disease, persecution and the winters of Siberia with courage, resourcefulness and humor. Throughout five long years, their love for each other was the only thing that held them together.

On a slightly unrelated note, the jacket design for the first printing of The Endless Steppe was done by Nonny Hogrogian. She is the author and illustrator of the Caldecott Award winning book, One Fine Day. This retelling of an Armenian folktale is one of my favorite children’s books.