The Boy on the Wooden Box by Leon Leyson

This book is a memoir of a young boy's journey during the Holocaust and how Oskar Schindler helped save his life.
 
Leon grew up with his family in Poland and had a typical life filled with everyday struggles. Although he was Jewish, he got along with non-Jews and went about his business not causing any problems. When the Germans started to take over Europe, they figured everything would quickly come to a close, just like the last time Germany came to town. This time, however, was different. Pretty soon families were forced to board trains and leave town. Leon and his family escaped this fate initially because they had work permits. Then the entire town was forced to move into a ghetto, made to share cramped living quarters and struggle to find food to survive. Before long, Leon's family started to separate - first one brother was sent on a train, then another brother, his father and sister had to leave for a labor camp while Leon and his mother went to another ghetto. The next stop became a labor camp where Leon found himself alone and struggling to survive, until he finds a way to contact his father who is working for the infamous Oskar Schindler. Although Schindler finds a way to reunite Leon's family, the fear they live in doesn't cease until the end of the war when they can finally start over, although knowing that life will never be the same again.
 
While this story is captivating and enjoyable (or as enjoyable as a Holocaust memoir can be), this book feels focused on its target audience of young readers. It has a great voice where you can hear the young Leon telling his story. As an adult reading this book, however, it felt as if something is missing. In no way am I trying to lessen what Leon went through because the reader definitely sees his struggle and sympathizes with his plight for survival, but his story is only 206 pages (small pages, a lot of spacing). At times I felt as if he was telling rather than showing. Maybe this comes from the fact that this memoir is based on the speeches he gives about his experiences, where he has a limited time and can't give every detail. Even though I personally wanted more, it was a gripping memoir that peeked my interest in Oskar Schindler and other tales of survival.

No Holocaust story is going to be easy to tell - especially when it is one you personally lived through. With so many books out there telling all of the horrific details, you almost expect that when you pick up a Holocaust book, which threatens to desensitize you to the emotional pain one experiences. Leon's story isn't as heavy on the details as you might expect, but that fits with the audience and doesn't do much to lessen the horrors he experienced. This book gives a great view of the Holocaust from the eyes of a boy who was barely even ten when the world around him began to change and nineteen when he had a chance to start anew. For young readers wanting to know about someone's experience in the Holocaust, this is a worth the read.
MMK

Keeping Hope Alive by Dr. Hawa Abdi as told to Sarah J Robbins

Abdi is a medical doctor who had the fortune to train in Russia on scholarship at a time when few women did.  Later her daughters and son would also receive education in Russia on scholarship.

While doing her residency in various specialties, she changed her mind many times about she wanted to do.  When she began caring for women and children she unexpectedly found her niche.  She wanted very much to help the many poor women receive needed medical care, find jobs, feed their children.  Abdi had resources both in land and in a bit of money that she used to establish first a clinic then a hospital for these needy people. Any money she had she poured back into the compound, adding farming, job training and so on. When drought hit and later during spurts of violent clashes between warring clans, Abdi expanded her hospital, served anyone in need who did not bring the fighting and intolerance into her compound.  Such was her dedication that she sent her children to safety in Kenya and remain behind to administer to the needs of those caught in poverty, starvation and violence. 

Abdi has a charisma, wisdom and strength that allowed her to keep out of politics, and keep her growing compound neutral territory.  As problems deepened aid groups from around the world tried to step in and help. One such agency was Doctors Without Borders which had to pull out when some of the aide workers were killed in violence.  Eventually the United States tried to help as well but their military tactics tended to add to the problems rather than help with solutions.

Things are a bit more settled now.  Abdi's two daughters do much to run the compound for their aging mother.  Abdi still focuses on women, children and anyone else in desperate need.  She concentrates on schooling and on campaigning against female circumcisions which are so harmful to women.  She has received several prizes for her tireless work for her beloved Somalians.  She has established a foundation to keep her projects funded.  See dhaf.org.

Although Abdi was blessed in many ways her life was not without hardship, errors in judgment, heartache.  I think its important to remember this. 

What bothered one reader most was that there was not more Somalian History and Politics explained.  For another reader the frequently out of sequence memories were confusing.

This memoir is mostly well written and quite riveting.  It would make a good Common Core Narrative Nonfiction selection.  It could be paired with Nick Lake's historical fiction book In Darkness as there are similarities in the cause of violence, and poverty.
LD/JW 7/22/13

A Child Called It by David Pelzer

So I realize I'm probably going to get kicked for this review, but I'm obviously too analytical to just take a book at face value. You mention this book to anyone and the first thing they say is "It's so sad" but what else? What do you walk away from with this book and that's where I think it fell short.

This book is a memoir of a child abuse victim. David's mother began abusing him when he was a child, insisting that he was a "bad boy." Besides physically abusing him and making him her slave, she had him living in a constant state of fear for what her next move would be. Some of her more devious attacks included leaving him in a closed bathroom with an ammonia and bleach mixture that became a gas chamber. She starved him for days, made him sleep in the garage, and at one point even stabbed him. Any attempt he made to get food was often discovered and then punished. His father - a firefighter - was rarely home and when he was, he became another one of the mother's victims, unable to help his son. In the end, after years of abuse, his teachers finally take a stand and save him from his horrible situation.

I don't know where to begin my reaction. I'll completely agree with anyone who says this book is sad because it is terrible what he went through. Do I believe everything? I think that with any biography there are situations that are embellished so I do take things with a grain of salt. I have a hard time accepting that as he went through all of this, no one helped him. For years, no one did ANYTHING to help him - okay, one person called child services, but ONE? That's it? That's hard for me swallow Which is why I think that there needs to be more background about the time period. I work in a school and I know that staff is required to report any sign of child abuse. This kid clearly had signs and no one did anything. I know that this is because of the time period, but I personally would have liked to know more, like when things changed or why no one did anything. Also, this novel is listed as "Self-Help/Psychology/Inspiration." I don't see much self-help going on in this novel. In my eyes, David didn't do much to help his situation. He told himself he could beat her - which he did somethings - and he prayed for her to die or else for her to kill him. How does that ultimately help another child in a similar situation? Ultimately, David survived because others finally came in and helped him. Yes, he grew past his situation and turned the bad into good, but I feel like this book is lacking the words of wisdom to honestly help others in this situation. It is eye opening to the horrors of child abuse but what does it have to say about fighting the system?

In the end, I thought that this book was a sad story and that's about it. It doesn't go much farther than telling the story. I realize I'm probably missing something from this memoir and am probably a cold, cynical person to not be so affected by this book, but I felt like it could have done more for the message.
MMK