When are people worth remembering? If we were to hold one minute of silence for each of the estimated 11 million victims of the holocaust, we would be silent for 20.9 years.  We have people to thank that these numbers weren’t higher.  Many people risked their careers, their fortunes, even their lives to save people who they had never met.  This book is a testament to regular people who became heroes.  Some are brave because they face injustice head-on and succeed and others because they simply can’t stand a wrong being committed.  

Anna is brave and dependable and has much to teach us.  She’s also Jewish at a time when it’s dangerous to be different.  Anna lives with her father and Grandmother in Poland.  Finding beauty in flowers, music, her friends, and her family, she realizes that life is changing quickly and even her friends are struggling.

The author, Kathy Kacer, has taken a hard subject and written a beautiful historical fiction that brings one small piece of this tragic story to a level that kids can learn from.  Anna and her family face uncertainty.  Do they go?  Do they stay?  Boldly they take a chance.  There are several characters throughout this story that interact with Anna and her family.  There is much we can learn from each of them. 

Included in the story are a few scenes of violence against innocent people, but Kathy Kacer has crafted this story in a way that although they are emotional, they are not graphic or gory.  With lots of action and captivating details, she writes in a way that lends itself as a great read aloud for the family with tweens or even as a supplement to a history reading curriculum.  This is book one in a series of four.  Although they all share the same theme, they could each stand alone.  I have not read book two or three; however, book four, Call Across the Sea, also leads me to believe two and three are must reads.  Kathy Kacer has written at least twenty-five books and has contributed to several others.  Be sure to read the author’s notes at the end of the story.

Content Analysis:

Profanity/Language: None 

Violence/Gore:  Some boys are bullies: chase another boy, throw rocks, Anti-Semitic discrimination; a young girl’s mother died a year before of an unknown illness, not overly descriptive; Hitler makes a speech over the radio saying he would cleanse Germany of the Jews and other nations would also follow;  a man is assaulted because he is Jewish, policeman watches, no details of harm; drunk men threaten a man and his daughter because they are Jewish, another man steps in to save them, some punches thrown, minor description of his face being bruised; gunships meet another ship, soldiers with guns, no violence; mention of a previous attack on a convoy of trucks where several people are killed, not descriptive of death; a train wreck caused by a grenade. 

Sex/Nudity:  None

Mature Subject Matter:

Nazis, Anti-Semitism, fear of a Palestinian man, previous death of mother, defacing property, kids sneak out, a girl lies to her father. 

Alcohol / Drug Use:

4 drunk men try to hurt a man and his daughter, another man intervenes.