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Saturday, March 27, 2010
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!
Friday, March 26, 2010
A Salt-Free, Dairy-Free, Chocolate-Free Par-tay!
7:05 PM
It's Friday, and I'm celebrating. Why? Because I got a huge box of shiny new books today? No. Because I'm going out on a hot date with my husband? I wish. No, I'm celebrating because I got the results of my blood work back and my thyroid/iodine levels are low enough for my iodine radiation treatment. Woo hoo! I know, it may not seem like much to be celebrating, but it is. I've been on a low-iodine diet this week and it's seriously just about been the death of me. No iodized salt, no dairy, no CHOCOLATE. Can you imagine? It's been horrendous. By Tuesday, I should be locked away from the world-at-large, alone with my books, feasting on chocolate, and glowing like a firefly. Ahhh ... now that's worth celebrating, don't you think?Okay, maybe you don't understand my enthusiasm, so chew on this: The Book Blogger Hop over at Crazy-For-Books.com is in full-swing. This fun, weekly meme encourages us to hop around and discover all the great book blogs out there (hint: there are TONS). Click on over to sign up. If you're here because of the hop, be sure to let me know. If you're here just because you love me, then thanks :)
I'm so excited I think I'll make myself a baked potato loaded with unsalted butter and non-iodized salt. I might even throw in some steamed unseasoned vegetables, just for fun. Do I know how to party, or what?
Labels:Book Blogger Hop,Cancer | 12
bookworm(s) said...
Mormon Mentions: Kaki Warner
2:37 PM
I won't be posting my review of Kaki Warner's Pieces of Sky until the 30th, but I wanted to share a passage from the book.
I haven't done a Mormon Mention in awhile, so I'll explain: As a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (commonly called The Mormons), I always find it funny/interesting/outrageous to see what non-members write about us. So, I like to share what I find along with my thoughts. What's the purpose of this little event? To laugh, to learn and to clear up misconceptions.
Here goes:
"Shut up." Brady stomped over to the desk. Yanking open the bottom drawer, he grabbed his special bottle of Hannah Goodman's Red-Rye Whiskey, reputed to be the finest brew to come out of Mormon country and guaranteed to turn an ugly woman pretty, or a confirmed bachelor into a polygamist with a single sip" (243).
Ha ha! I guess we know how Joseph Smith and Brigham Young enticed a "sober" people into something as illicit as polygamy. Should I be sniffing my Sacrament cup a little more closely each week?? Hmm ...
While you count down the days until the 30th, click on over to Kaki's blog and read all about her. She's a warm, funny lady. Pieces of Sky is her debut novel and the first in a trilogy about life on a ranch in New Mexico Territory during the 1860s and '70s. It's a western and a romance, but don't let that stop you - it's a very enjoyable read!
(Book image from Barnes & Noble)
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Forbidden Falls: An Extreme Makeover, Virgin River Style
1:00 AM
(Image from Barnes & Noble)
What do you get when you cross a minister, a stripper and an old church in serious need of a facelift?
No, that's not the opening to a dirty joke, it's the premise behind Forbidden Falls, Book 9 in Robyn Carr's heartwarming Virgin River series. Although the book actually follows a novella (titled "Under the Christmas Tree," it can be found in the Christmas collection "That Holiday Feeling!"), it picks up where Paradise Valley (Book 7) left off. The story begins with the old town church. Once a beautiful sanctuary, it's now a crumbling wreck. No one in their right mind would buy it, which gives crusty Hope McCrea a bright idea - she can auction it off on eBay. Her idea works like a dream, bringing newly-ordained minister Noah Kincaid into town.
Noah fits no one's idea of a preacher. He's young, handsome, down-to-Earth and decidedly more comfortable in a flannel shirt and ragged jeans than a shiny suit. What he lacks in experience, he makes up for in enthusiasm. Most importantly, he's got some inheritance money. Not a lot, but enough to give the church a well-deserved extreme makeover. It doesn't take long, though, before he realizes the project's a lot bigger than he can handle alone. Enter Ellie Baldwin. She's not what Noah had in mind for a preacher's assistant. With her tight clothes, pancake makeup and teased hair, she is, in fact, the exact wrong type of girl to be helping with the job. Noah knows tongues will never stop wagging if he hires the sexy 25-year-old. Too bad she's a whiz with a broom, a dynamo with a paintbrush, and the best darn organizer he's ever known. In short, she's the perfect person for the dirty, dusty, overwhelming chore of whipping the church into shape. Against his better judgment, he hires her.
The more Noah gets to know Ellie, the more he realizes how wrong first impressions can be. Ellie's a strong, hardworking woman who wants only one thing - to get her children back from her control freak ex-husband. As the only clergy in town, Noah feels obligated to help. Between working together at the church every day and wrangling with Ellie's legal problems, the two grow closer and closer. Noah's growing especially attached - does Ellie feel the same way? She's been hurt so much in the past that she's sworn off men forever. Does that mean Noah will never get a chance to love the woman who's awoken all the feelings he thought he'd buried with his young wife? And what about the congregration Noah's trying so hard to build in Virgin River? Will they ever accept him if he's trailing after an ex-stripper like a lovesick pup? Can an unlikely couple like Noah and Ellie ever succeed in a small, conservative town like Virgin River?
I don't read much romance, but a friend suckered me into reading Robyn Carr. I tell you, one book and I was hooked. Carr creates the best kind of settings - small, close towns filled with the kind of people you'd want to rub shoulders with every day. Virgin River's idyllic, although it's not without its problems. The people are the same. Good, hardworking, family and community-oriented, they look out for their own. Reading about these folks is always a pleasure. I really do miss them when I'm away.
Forbidden Falls is everything I already love about this series - and more. The more comes purely from Ellie Baldwin. Sure, she's the clichéd prostitute (well, stripper)-with-a-heart-of-gold, but she's the kind of person that just makes you smile. Noah's a typical Carr character - Ellie breaks the mold. You always get a Happily Ever After in a Carr novel, so you know the two will end up together. Still, it's a sweet, enjoyable romance that's funny, hopeful and charming in that down home Virgin River way. This is easily one of my favorite installments in what has proved to be a thoroughly entertaining series.
(Readalikes: Grace Valley trilogy by Robyn Carr; previous Virgin River books)
Grade: A-
If this were a movie, it would be rated: PG-13 for language and sexual content
To the FTC, with love: I received this book from the author. Thanks, Robyn!
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