"A worthwhile addition to the Holocaust genre, particularly suitable to a classroom setting...." --Kirkus Indie Reviews
"Blue-eyed Claire lives with her close-knit family—her parents and 10-year-old sister, Hannah—in the southeastern Polish town of Dynow. Down the street are her zaydie (grandfather), who has a meaningful story for every occasion, and her bubbie (grandmother), who enjoys remembering what it was like to be an adolescent. As the story begins, Claire’s primary concern is whether a chicken bought for dinner will be blessed as kosher by the rabbi. But it’s September 1939, and many Jews are at risk. Jewish men are rounded up after Germans cross the Polish border, but Claire’s father and grandfather escape. Many Christians in Dynow turn a blind eye as Jews are shot to death and buried, or burned alive in the synagogues. After being exiled, Claire reunites with her father and her zaydie in eastern Poland, and eventually she and her family must choose whether to become Russian citizens. Through it all, Claire sustains the belief that safety and happiness are tied to passage to Palestine. Aviv’s novel is a compelling tale about sacrifice, family loyalty and hard choices in hard times. An underlying theme examines why the Jews didn’t fight back, echoed in the recent film Defiance. At the center is gritty Claire, a resilient character of sand and sass, who’s honest about her feelings and her reactions to historic events. In spite of her tender years, she is often vocally at odds with those around her, as she intuits that life has changed fundamentally and possibly irrevocably, as she learns to navigate new worlds with new rules. At the core is a basic survival instinct—like choosing boots over food in Siberia—even as she longs for a return to normalcy. Life lessons include poverty, benefiting from the black market, and learning who among many strangers can be trusted. The pacing, though not brisk, is steady, as is interest in the fates of Claire and her family as they attempt to keep the Jewish soul alive in emaciated bodies. Along the way, there are touching moments of first love, jealousy and sexual attraction, juxtaposed with displacement, nonstop hunger and disease. ...the narrative is strong, with valuable insights for teens and young teens." -- Kirkus Indie Reviews
"Blue-eyed Claire lives with her close-knit family—her parents and 10-year-old sister, Hannah—in the southeastern Polish town of Dynow. Down the street are her zaydie (grandfather), who has a meaningful story for every occasion, and her bubbie (grandmother), who enjoys remembering what it was like to be an adolescent. As the story begins, Claire’s primary concern is whether a chicken bought for dinner will be blessed as kosher by the rabbi. But it’s September 1939, and many Jews are at risk. Jewish men are rounded up after Germans cross the Polish border, but Claire’s father and grandfather escape. Many Christians in Dynow turn a blind eye as Jews are shot to death and buried, or burned alive in the synagogues. After being exiled, Claire reunites with her father and her zaydie in eastern Poland, and eventually she and her family must choose whether to become Russian citizens. Through it all, Claire sustains the belief that safety and happiness are tied to passage to Palestine. Aviv’s novel is a compelling tale about sacrifice, family loyalty and hard choices in hard times. An underlying theme examines why the Jews didn’t fight back, echoed in the recent film Defiance. At the center is gritty Claire, a resilient character of sand and sass, who’s honest about her feelings and her reactions to historic events. In spite of her tender years, she is often vocally at odds with those around her, as she intuits that life has changed fundamentally and possibly irrevocably, as she learns to navigate new worlds with new rules. At the core is a basic survival instinct—like choosing boots over food in Siberia—even as she longs for a return to normalcy. Life lessons include poverty, benefiting from the black market, and learning who among many strangers can be trusted. The pacing, though not brisk, is steady, as is interest in the fates of Claire and her family as they attempt to keep the Jewish soul alive in emaciated bodies. Along the way, there are touching moments of first love, jealousy and sexual attraction, juxtaposed with displacement, nonstop hunger and disease. ...the narrative is strong, with valuable insights for teens and young teens." -- Kirkus Indie Reviews
