👶👶👶 Yellow Star, by Jennifer Roy

This novel is probably one of the better novels to introduce adolescents to the Holocaust. As terrifying as it it still is, it is written in prose from the perspective of a child, which makes it a bit easier to digest than most novels about this devastating time period. It also makes the tragedy very real for the young reader, as it is an eye-witness account.



Read 2/12/19

👶👶👶👶 Between Shades of Gray, by Ruta Sepetys

Ruta Sepetys is incomparable when it comes to discovering little known history and bringing it to light for youth. In this young adult novel, Ms. Sepetys wows again, as she depicts the Lithuanian deportation through the eyes of a 15-year-old Lithuanian girl in the early 1940's. Lina’s aptitude for drawing was instrumental in the communication with her father, from whom she and her family were torn from early on in the novel. It was through these drawings that Lina expressed her feelings and fears about the events and locations they were led to. As I have mentioned in the past, while Sepetys’ writing is clearly intended for the adolescent crowd, it is brutally violent, and I pause at the age range this novel is geared toward. Her writing requires tremendous intellectual maturity, such that no 12-year-old I know would be prepared for. However, for those 16 and older, who can process such tragedies, I would say that her novels are filled with rich and important history, encompassed in a very relatable story.

Read 9/25/17