My Family for the War

Voorhoeve Anne C. My Family for the War.
February 16th 2012 by Dial Books for Young Readers

Ziska is only ten when her family starts to realize they are not going to make it out of Berlin before Hitler manages to bring trouble to the Jews, so Ziska is sent on a kindertransport to England. There, she is lucky to run into Gary and his father, who are looking for a child to foster for the duration. The family is more observant of Jewish traditions than Ziska is, but she manages to settle in. Now called Frances, she experiences some trouble at school, tries to find sponsors for her parents, and comes to care for her English family. When London is in danger of being bombed, Frances is briefly evacuated, but comes back after a brief time. Gary goes off to fight in the war, and things become more difficult in London. Frances’ father dies, Gary is missing in action, and Frances feels guilty that she has come to care so much for her foster family. When the war winds down, she manages to find relatives who locate her mother, and she reconnects with her, but the war has changed everyone.
Strengths: This is a different facet of the Jewish experience during the war, and the London experience is one I don’t have much on.
Weaknesses: Our eighth grade unit tends to concentrate on the experience of people in the concentration camps, but this might be a good addition to our Holocaust collection.