Meg Wiviott

I've never (? at least not often) read a young-YA Holocaust novel that takes place *in* the camps. It's easier to tell a story of hope and resilience when your character escapes. This book walks that line perfectly, I think -- a Holocaust story should feel tragic and exhausting, and a YA novel should have a touch of hopeful ending.

I read this book to consider assigning it as a book club choice for our 8th grade ELA Holocaust unit. It's short, brisk, emotionally resonant, and the overall story isn't complicated. We ended up deciding against assigning it, unfortunately, because it requires far too much background knowledge about Judaism -- that could work in a whole-class novel, maybe, but even if we provided a glossary all the Hebrew and Yiddish and cultural knowledge would bog down many independent readers.… (mer)