Bloggin' 'bout Books: 03/27/10

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Delicate Dress Guarantees Memories of Stolen Childhoods Will Never Be Forgotten

5:59 AM

(Image from Barnes & Noble)

One dark night in 1943, 8-year-old Lola Rein sneaks out of the Jewish ghetto. She whispers past buildings, quiet as a mouse, always on the look out for guards. Once she makes it to the bridge, she's safe - for now. A Ukrainian woman hides Lola in her farmhouse. Until it becomes too dangerous. On another dark night, the farm wife hustles Lola across the fields to a different hiding spot. Sheathed in her favorite dress - the one her mother made for her, the one with the beautiful, delicately stitched flowers - Lola slides deep into the dirt under someone's root cellar. Although there are other Jews there, none are her family. Lola's father is dead, her mother has been shot by the Gestapo, and her beloved Babcia (grandma) remains in the ghetto. She is all alone. For nine months, she crouches in the filthy hole. Not once does she take off the dress.

With this startling detail, so horrifying in its wrongness, begins the incredible true story of Lola Rein Kaufman. The Hidden Girl is her account (written with the help of YA author Lois Metzger) of a childhood ruined by Hitler's determination to exterminate the world's Jewish population. In her unsentimental, no-nonsense voice, Lola describes how she became one of the thousands of Jewish children hidden away during the war. Although she was "lucky" enough to avoid death camps and gas chambers, she stresses that

It's hard to feel lucky. We did what we could and what seemed to make sense, but even when things went right, we were scared every moment. That's not what "lucky" feels like (87).

Even when she was allowed to emerge from hiding, Lola's plight continued. With no family to care for her, she was left to scrabble on her own. Eventually, she found her way to America. There, she was able to begin a new life for herself. Years later, after pressing the terror of the war years into the deepest recesses of her mind, she felt compelled to share her story.

Her favorite embroideried dress now lays in a musem, a delicate reminder of the innocence stolen from thousands of children who spent what should have been their carefree years trembling in their dark hiding spots. It speaks of their strength, their courage, their resilience. Lola's dress guarantees that, although thousands of childhoods died in the darkness, their stories will see the light. Never, ever to be forgotten.

Lola Rein Kaufman's dress is now on display at The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Learn more about her and her story here.

(Readalikes: Anne Frank, The Diary of A Young Girl; Rutka's Notebook: A Voice From the Holocaust by Rutka Laskier)

Grade: B

If this were a movie, it would be rated: While stories about The Holocaust can never be rated anything less than R for senseless violence and abject horror, The Hidden Girl is written with a young audience in mind. It contains violence and mature themes, but they are described in a PG manner that should be suitable for children ages 8+.

To the FTC, with love: I received this review book from the generous folks at Scholastic. Thank you!

Books Read in 2025 (asterisks denote favorites)

1. Coram House by Bailey Seybolt (Jan)
2. She Doesn't Have a Clue by Jenny Elder Moke (Jan)
3. My Salty Mary by Brodi Ashton, Cynthia Hand, and Jodi Meadows* [audio] (Jan)
4. The Echoes by Jess Montgomery (Jan)
5. The Highgate Cemetery Murder by Irina Shapiro (Jan)
6. Barbacoa, Bomba, and Betrayal by Raquel V. Reyes (Jan)
7. Murder at Chateau sur Mer by Alyssa Maxwell (Jan)
8. Away by Megan E. Freeman (Jan)
9. Unsinkable by Jenni L. Walsh [audio] (Jan)
10. A Golden Grave by Erin Lindsey* (Jan)
11. All Over the Map by Lanie Jacobs (Jan)
12. Stranded by Nikki Shannon Smith (Jan)
13. Elementary, She Read by Vicki Delany [audio] (Jan)
14. The Souls of Lost Lake by Jaime Jo Wright (Jan)
15. How to Book a Murder by Cynthia Kuhn (Jan)
16. A Dream of Death by Connie Berry (Jan)
17. The In-Between: Unforgettable Encounters During Life's Final Moments by Hadley Vlahos, RN* (Jan)
18. Red River Road by Anna Downes [audio] (Jan)
19. Janitors School of Garbage by Tyler Whitesides (Feb)
20. Something in the Walls by Daisy Pearce (Feb)
21. Janitors School of Garbage: Trials of the Trash by Tyler Whitesides (Feb)
22. The Brightwood Code by Monica Hesse [audio] (Feb)
23. A Legacy of Murder by Connie Berry (Feb)
24. The Crash by Freida McFadden (Feb)
25. To Catch a Storm by Mindy Mejia (Feb)
26. Murder in Miniature by Katie Tietjen (Feb)
27. A World of Hurt by Mindy Mejia (Feb)
28. If Walls Could Talk by Juliet Blackwell (Feb)
29. Finlay Donovan Is Killing It by Elle Cosimano [audio] (Feb)
30. Wool by Hugh Howey (Feb)
31. Shift by Hugh Howey (Feb)
32. Two Parts Sugar, One Part Murder by Valerie Burns [audio] (Mar)
33. The Treasure Hunters Club by Tom Ryan (Mar)
34. Last Light Over Galveston by Jennifer L. Wright (Mar)
35. Murder on the Page by Daryl Wood Gerber (Mar)
36. The Housemaid by Freida McFadden (Mar)
37. The Housemaid's Secret by Freida McFadden (Mar)
38. The Last Lifeboat by Hazel Gaynor [audio] (Mar)
39. You Belong Here by Megan Miranda (Mar)
40. Asylum Hotel by Juliet Blackwell (Mar)
41. The Mother-in-Law by Sally Hepworth* [audio] (Mar)
42. Reconnected: How 7 Screen-Free Weeks With Monks and Amish Farmers helped Me Recover the Lost Art of Being Human by Carlos Whittaker (Mar)
43. Famous Last Words by Gillian McAllister (Mar)
44. Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto* (Apr)
45. Her Last Flight by Beatriz Williams (Apr)
46. The Wind Called My Name by Mary Louise Sanchez (Apr)
47. What Happened to Nina? by Dervla McTiernan (Apr)
48. The Younger Wife by Sally Hepworth [audio] (Apr)
49. That Last Carolina Summer by Karen White (Apr)
50. A Pie to Die For by Gretchen Rue (Apr)
51. The Raven Thief by Gigi Pandian (Apr)
52. The Boxcar Librarian by Brianna Labuskes (Apr)
53. Cold As Hell by Kelley Armstrong* [audio] (Apr)
54. Murder Runs in the Family by Tamara Berry (Apr)
55. The Housemaid is Watching by Freida McFadden (Apr)
56. Petals and Poison by Jess Dylan [audio] (Apr)
57. It Happened on the Lake by Lisa Jackson (Apr)
58. The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah* [re-read] (May)
59. Outside by Jennifer L. Holm (May)
60. You Are Here: Connecting Flights by various authors, edited by Ellen Oh (May)
61. The Silver Shooter by Erin Lindsey* (May)
62. The Art of Betrayal by Connie Berry* (May)
63. The Secret Room by Jane Casey* (May)
64. The Sasquatch of Hawthorne Elementary by K.B. Jackson (May)
65. The Sasquatch of Harriman Lake by K.B. Jackson (May)
66. Girl Forgotten by April Henry (May)
67. One Sharp Stitch by Allie Pleiter (May)
68. On Her Own Grounds: The Life and Times of Madam C.J. Walker by A'Lelia Bundles (May)
69. #FollowMe for Murder by Sarah E. Burr (May)
70. The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware [re-read] (May)
71. Where Only Storms Grow by Alyssa Colman (May)
72. Every Time I Go On Vacation, Someone Dies by Catherine Mack (May)
73. The Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder by C.L. Miller [audio] (May)
74. The Woman in Suite 11 by Ruth Ware (May)
75. I Am Not Jessica Chen by Ann Liang (May)
76. The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion, Volume 1 by Beth Brower (May)
77. The Quiet Librarian by Allen Eskens (Jun)
78. The Burning Library by Gilly Macmillan (Jun)
79. Find Her by Ginger Reno (Jun)
80. Same Page by Elly Swartz (Jun)
81. Mrs. Christie at the Mystery Guild Library by Amanda Chapman (Jun)
82. A Death at Seascape House by Emma Jameson (Jun)
83. Something Wilder by Christina Lauren (Jun)
84. Hummus and Homicide by Tina Kashian (Jun)
85. The Queens of Crime by Marie Benedict* (Jun)
86. The Library of Borrowed Hearts by Lucy Gilmore [audio] (Jun)
87. The Town With No Mirrors by Christina Collins (Jun)
88. Clammed Up by Barbara Ross (Jun)
89. The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness* [re-read] (Jun)
90. Emily of New Moon by L.M. Montgomery (Jun)
91. With a Vengeance by Riley Sager (Jun)
92. Murder Past Due by Miranda James (Jun)
93. The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson (Jun)
94. This Side of Murder by Anna Lee Huber [audio] (Jun)
95. The Whisper Place by Mindy Mejia (Jun)
96. Better Than Before: Mastering the Habits of Our Everyday Lives by Gretchen Rubin (Jun)
97. The Experiment by Rebecca Stead (Jun)
98. The Shadow of Memory by Connie Berry (Jun)
99. The Passengers on the Hankyu Line by Hiro Arikawa (Jun)
100. Rabbit Rabbit by Dori Hillestad Butler (Jul)
101. The Ghostwriter by Julie Clark (Jul)
102. The Ask and the Answer by Patrick Ness* [re-read] (Jul)
103. The Death of Us by Lori Rader-Day (Jul)
104. You Are Fatally Invited by Ande Pliego (Jul)
105. Everything is Tuberculosis by John Green (Jul)
106. A Berry Deadly Welcome by A.R. Winters (Jul)
107. The Beat I Drum by Dusti Bowling (Jul)
108. The Last Murder at the End of the World by Stuart Turton* (Jul)
109. The Women by Kristin Hannah [audio] (Jul)
110. The Ivory City by Emily Bain Murphy (Jul)
111. A Fatal Thaw by Dana Stabenow (Jul)
112. No One Was Supposed to Die at This Wedding by Catherine Mack (Jul)
113. A Murder Most Fowl by Carmela Dutra (Jul)
114. Loon Cove Summer by Donna Galanti (Jul)
115. Death at a Highland Wedding by Kelley Armstrong* (Jul)
116. The Ripple Effect by Rebecca Caprara (Jul)
117. Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy (Jul)
118. The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt (Aug)
119. Death on Eat Street by J.J. Cook (Aug)
120. The How and the Why by Cynthia Hand* [audio] (Aug)
121. Heist Society by Ally Carter (Aug)
122. Evil Bones by Kathy Reichs* (Aug)
123. Six Weeks in Reno by Lucy H. Hedrick (Aug)
124. The Tontine Caper by Dianne K. Salerni (Aug)
125. I.R.L. by Jenny Goebel (Aug)
126. The Girls of Good Fortune by Kristina McMorris [audio] (Aug)
127. Gluten for Punishment by Nancy J. Parra (Aug)
128. Curses, Boiled Again! by Shari Randall (Aug)
129. I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai (Aug)
130. The Truth According to Us by Annie Barrows [audio] (Aug)
131. The Red Umbrella by Christina Diaz Gonzalez (Aug)
132. The Land of Forgotten Girls by Erin Entrada Kelly (Aug)
133. Betrayal in the Badlands by Dana Mentink (Aug)
134. Canter With a Killer by Amber Camp (Aug)
135. Hour of the Bees by Lindsay Eagar (Aug)
136. Dominoes, Danzon, and Death by Raquel V. Reyes (Aug)
137. The Frozen People by Elly Griffiths* (Aug)
138. The Haunting of Emily Grace by Elena Taylor (Aug)
139. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman [audio] (Aug)
140. Writers and Liars by Carol Goodman (Sep)
141. The Family Next Door by Sally Hepworth [audio] (Sep)
142. The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman* [re-read] (Sep)
143. The Librarians by Sherry Thomas (Sep)
144. Radiant by Vaund Micheaux Nelson (Sep)
145. The Break-In by Katherine Faulkner (Sep)
146. The Tenth Mistake of Hank Hooperman by Gennifer Choldenko [audio] (Sep)
147. The Block Party by Jamie Day [audio] (Sep)
148. Daughters of the Bamboo Grove: From China to America, a True Story of Abduction, Adoption, and Separated Twins by Barbara Demick (Sep)
149. The Other Mothers by Katherine Faulkner (Sep)
150. Murder By Memory by Olivia Waite (Sep)
151. The One and Only Family by Katherine Applegate [audio] (Sep)
152. The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper by Hallie Rubenhold (Sep)
153. A Time For Courage: The Suffragette Diary of Kathleen Bowen by Kathryn Lasky (Sep)
154. Famous Last Words by Katie Alender [audio] (Sep)
155. Sanctuary by Paola Mendoza (Sep)
156. Haunting and Homicide by Ava Burke (Sep)
157. West With Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge* (Sep)
158. Where'd You Go, Bernadette? by Maria Semple [audio] (Sep)
159. Open and Shut by David Rosenfelt (Sep)
160. Heartwood by Amity Gaige (Sep)
161. The Garden Just Beyond by Lindsey Leavitt (Oct)
162. Big Stone Gap by Adriana Trigiani [re-read] (Oct)
163. 59 Minutes by Holly Seddon (Oct)
164. The Serial Killer Guide to San Francisco by Michelle Chouinard (Oct)
165. Such a Good Mom by Julia Spiro (Oct)
166. Sandwich by Catherine Newman (Oct)
167. Shadows in the Mind's Eye by Janyre Tromp [audiobook] (Oct)
168. Miss Benson's Beetle by Rachel Joyce (Oct)
169. I Know What UFO Did This Summer by Kevin Garone (Oct)
170. A Box Full of Darkness by Simone St. James*
171. This Cookie Will Change Your Life by Ann Dee Ellis (Oct)
172. Bleep Blurp Murder by Becca Lee Gardner (Nov)
173. Everyone in This Bank is a Thief by Benjamin Stevenson* (Nov)
174. No One Aboard by Emy McGuire (Nov)
175. Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins* (Nov)
176. The Maid's Secret by Nita Prose (Nov)
177. The Forgotten Magic of Zoey Turner by Erin Stewart (Nov)
178. The Playmakers by Chard Morris and Shelly Brown (Nov)
179. Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt* [audio] (Nov)
180. The Afterlife of Holly Chase by Cynthia Hand (Nov)
181. The Guest House by Robin Morgan-Bentley (Nov)
182. The Memory Spinner by C.M. Cornwell (Nov)
183. Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey [audio] (Dec)
184. Mad Mabel by Sally Hepworth* (Dec)
185. Grimmworld: The Big Bad Wolf by Michaelbrent Collings (Dec)
186. The Last Word by Elly Griffiths [audio] (Dec)
187. The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest by Aubrey Hartman (Dec)
188. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens* [re-read] [audio] (Dec)
189. Murder Buys a T-Shirt by Christy Fifield (Dec)
190. One Wrong Step by Jennifer A. Nielsen* [audio] (Dec)
191. She's Not Sorry by Mary Kubica [audio] (Dec)
192. The Winterton Deception: Final Word by Janet Sumner Johnson [re-read] (Dec)
193. Don't Sing at the Table: Life Lessons from My Grandmothers by Adriana Trigiani [audio] (Dec)
194. First Sign of Danger by Kelley Armstrong* (Dec)

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Delicate Dress Guarantees Memories of Stolen Childhoods Will Never Be Forgotten

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