The Extra - Kathryn Lasky

Jewish people along with the Gypsies were persecuted by the Nazi's during World War Two.  On an Autumn night in 1940 Lilo, her father, and her mother are taken from their home and transported to a holding area.  Five nights later the three of them, along with many other Gypsies, are taken to Buchenwald.  Lilo and her mother are separated from Lilo's father at the camp.  After two days of asking where her father is a boy asks her what she's looking for.  Lilo describes her father to him and the boy, Django, says he will try and find him.  Django does find him and he's on a transport leaving the camp.  The next day there is roll call for the girls and women to be medical pioneers.  This is the polite way of saying the doctors are sterilizing the women so they can't have children.  Lilo is spared thanks to the Good Matron hiding her.  Two weeks later they are transported to Maxglan.  Shortly after arriving Leni Riefenstahl, Hitler's favorite filmmaker, picks twenty-three of the prisoners including Lilo, her mother, and Django to be extras in a movie.  They are transported to Krün, hosed down and given new clothes.  They are reminded that they are still prisoners and the same rules apply as they did at Maxglan.  The next day some of them, including Lilo and Django, are driven to the film set.  They are in awe of how realistic the set looks.  The extras are cast as street urchins in the movie.  If some of them aren't needed for a scene they are kept in a cell until needed.  When they are off set the Gypsies are housed in a barn, which is a little better than Maxglan, but not by much.  Lilo wants her mother with her while she's on set and Django gets her on the bus going to the movie set.  Lilo is assigned to be a stand in for some of the wide shot scenes of the main characters entering and leaving the town on horseback.  Lilo sees this as a chance to be noticed by Leni and possibly keeping her and her mother alive after the film is complete.  Filming heads to Babelsberg in the winter of 1940-1941.  To keep everyone alive the Gypsies are given warmer blankets and a bit more food.  Shooting continues for the next few months at Babelsberg and by the second week of May 1941 filming is completed there.  It is announced that everyone would be returning to Krün, with a few going to Sarentino in Italy for further shooting.  Lilo and Django are among the few who get to go.  While in Sarentino Lilo has a strange waking dream about wanting to free herself from everything.  She dismisses it as just a dream.  The filming finishes up in Sarentino and everyone heads back to Krün.  On June 22nd, 1941 word is spreading that Hitler has invaded Russian and everyone is celebrating.  While all of this celebrating is going on Lilo sees her chance to escape.  She escapes and doesn't look back.

I enjoyed this book.  I'm not one for historical fiction, but this book kept my interest all the way through.  It was a good story about survival during one of the most horrific periods in human history.  I also liked the fact Lilo always had hope.  Even when everything looked really grim, she believed one day things would get better.

T.B. 2/10/14

In Darkness by Nick Lake

This is a fictionalized account of Haiti's history as told through the thoughts of Shorty.  He is a boy who was buried in a cave of rubble and dead bodies after the catastrophic earthquake of 2010.  There was actually a boy pulled alive from the wreckage after 8 days, after rescue workers no longer expected to find anyone living. The real boy was badly dehydrated but otherwise mostly ok. 
 
The fictional boy is a gun toting, murdering drug gang member. While in his dark cave, he sings songs he can remember words for.  He thinks about his recent experiences in the gang, when his father was hacked to death and his sister stolen.  He remembers revolutionist Dread Wilme's voudou funeral.  He remembers making mud cakes to tide himself and his mother over til real food can be gotten.  He remembers the poverty, violence, chaos.  When he drifts off to sleep he dreams of Toussaint L'Ouverture an early revolutionary leader who tried to stabilize his people and government after the French pulled out, freed the slaves and the British tried to take over. 
 
In the early 1700's and in the 1600's Haiti was a thriving trade center.  One of its export/imports was,  unfortunately,  slaves.  The country became unstable, violent, and impoverished when the French pulled out and a new strong government failed to be formed and it remains so today. 
 
The darkness in the title has multiple meanings as readers will discover.  This is a hard novel to read.  There is a lot of violence.  And, there is much difficult to understand language from French, from Kreyole (creole or Haitian dialect), from blanc (a blend of English and gang language and swearing), from voudou and African language.  I did not understand all of it and most readers will not, though perhaps unfamiliar words could be found on the Internet.  This is a Prinz Award winner which is the top honor for Young Adult Literature.  It could easily be an adult crossover book.  Anyone wanting to become more familiar with Haiti and its history could learn from this title.  But, most teens are unlikely to get through story. JDW 7/14/13

"Once" "Then" and "Now" by Morris Gleitzman

This is a series of three book (the fourth is coming out in a few months) that first follow a boy in the Holocaust and then jumps to his life seventy years later. The first two books are amazingly emotionally charged while the third book loses some of the magic. It is still a great series.

Once begins with a naive Felix who was sent to an orphanage by his parents three years ago. He receives what he believes to be a sign from his parents that they're coming for him but instead sees men (Nazis) coming and burning books. Fearing that his parents (booksellers) are in grave danger, Felix leaves and tries to warn his parents. For most of the novel Felix believes this horrible situation is about book or specifically Jewish books. Along the way he meets Zelda, a six-year-old whose parents he discovered shot dead. He rescues Zelda, only to be caught by the Nazis. He is rescued along with Zelda  and hidden but is still under the illusion that his parents are out there and he needs to find them. When he finally realizes the truth, he is devastated and with the Nazis in town, he has to find the strength and courage to save himself and those he loves that he can still save.

Then begins right after Once. Felix and Zelda are on the run from the Nazis. They both know the truth about their parents and now believe the only way to survive is to find new parents. With a few more shocking discoveries about what the Nazis are capable of, a kind woman finds the children and brings them into her home, dyes their hair and passes them off as her niece and nephew. It sounds easy enough, but when Felix makes an enemy out of a town bully, he has to be extra careful not to be caught with his pants down (literally). With the Nazis always around, Felix knows that even with the help of a friend in the Hitler Youth, the only way to protect his loved ones is to leave, but can he save them before it's too late?

Now jumps about 70 years and changes narrators. Now the story is about Felix's granddaughter Zelda (obviously named after his childhood friend). She's living with Felix in Australia while her parents are saving lives in Africa. As the new girl in school, she suddenly becomes the target of bullying, a fact that Felix is extremely sensitive about. All of that gets put aside, though, when a horrible bushfire starts and threatens to destroy the town, forcing Zelda to be brave like her namesake.

The first two books have an amazing voice. Felix is only ten and believes in storytelling and how with the right story anything is possible. His naivety is so believable you feel horrible that he's experiencing all of this without realizing the severity. The first two books just have so much emotion that you get sucked in and cannot put it down. You are one with these characters to the point that I was yelling at the second book when certain events took place. They are powerful and what's nice is that they are a really quick read. It's great storytelling to get in that emotion in under 200 pages. Something gets lost in the third book, however. The voice isn't as strong in the third book. The story didn't draw me in as easily as the first two books, quite possibly because it didn't have the back story of the Holocaust to have this constant threat to the characters. It did pick up when the bushfire started, which is based on Australia's Victorian Bushfires of 2009. Maybe there is something to be said about background knowledge when reading books because I knew nothing about those fires so I had no connection to that storyline whereas I do know about the Holocaust so I was able to connect more to those books. That's not to say that the third book doesn't have it's positives. When the fires start the story gets bumped up a notch. Zelda also does have a unique voice - she really wants to please her grandfather and is a bit paranoid, which is why she desperately wants to be brave like the original Zelda. She's just not as strong a character or storyteller as Felix.

I really enjoyed this series, especially the first two novels. All of the books are under 200 pages so they're all quick reads but with a lot of depth. The third book is the only one that seems to lack something but this is definitely a series that should be read.
MMK