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Review: Boy from Buchenwald by Robbie Waisman

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Boy from Buchenwald by Robbie Waisman

Boy From Buchenwald
Robbie Waisman
with Susan McClelland
Bloomsbury Children’s Books
Published May 11, 2021

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About Boy from Buchenwald

It was 1945 and Romek Wajsman had just been liberated from Buchenwald, a brutal concentration camp where more than 60,000 people were killed. He was starving, tortured, and had no idea where his family was-let alone if they were alive. Along with 472 other boys, including Elie Wiesel, these teens were dubbed “The Buchenwald Boys.” They were angry at the world for their abuse, and turned to violence: stealing, fighting, and struggling for power. Everything changed for Romek and the other boys when Albert Einstein and Rabbi Herschel Schacter brought them to a home for rehabilitation.

Romek Wajsman, now Robbie Waisman, humanitarian and Canadian governor general award recipient, shares his remarkable story of transforming pain into resiliency and overcoming incredible loss to find incredible joy.

My Review

I feel like I’ve been sitting at my keyboard awhile struggling for the right words to review this book. It’s definitely one that left me speechless, in a good way. I’ve read NIGHT by Elie Wiesel, and a couple other accounts of surviving Nazi concentration camps, but it never gets easier to read about it. The horror and shock of it strikes me fresh every time, and it should.

I feel like this book does a really great job balancing the reality of what happened with an understanding of its audience as young readers. The authors give a frank account but seem to know when to zoom in or zoom out on the scene being described. There’s a gentleness to the way the story is told. Like it’s not only being told my someone who’s survived, but someone who understands and connects with other kids. I’m not doing a great job explaining this. I guess maybe what I’m trying to say is that it doesn’t surprise me at all that Waisman speaks to schools. It seems like he has a gift for it.

A lot of the story focuses on Romek’s recovery from imprisonment in Buchenwald. At first he has very few memories of his life before with his family, or of happiness. At the beginning of each (or most) chapters, he flashes back to a memory, sometimes difficult ones. As he has time to grieve and to heal, those flashbacks show his memories gradually returning. And the progression of them shows its own journey through trauma and anger and loss and until finally he’s able to remember happy moments from his childhood.

Conclusion

BOY FROM BUCHENWALD is an inspiring story about grief and healing. It’s about the way that we need each other. It’s about the worst ways in which we hurt one another and the best ways we help one another heal. I loved it, and I think it’d make a great addition to a classroom library or Holocaust study.

Content Notes for The Boy from Buchenwald

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Representation
Most major characters are Jewish and Holocaust survivors.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Two instances of mild profanity. One is a reference to a name for a ship carrying Jewish refugees that was turned away from other countries. Another refers to time spent in a concentration camp as being in hell.

Romance/Sexual Content
Reference to children being hidden by the women in the concentration camp brothels.

Spiritual Content
Some scenes describe Jewish services and celebrations. After being liberated from Buchenwald, some of the boys take refuge in faith while others can’t reconnect with faith at all.

Violent Content
Some brief descriptions of torture, starvation, and cruelty toward prisoners of the camps and Jews under Nazi occupation. The boys develop a reputation as angry and destructive.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support running this blog. I received a free copy of BOY FROM BUCHENWALD in exchange for my honest review.

Review: Today Tonight Tomorrow by Rachel Lynn Solomon

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Today Tonight Tomorrow
Rachel Lynn Solomon
Simon Pulse
Published July 28, 2020

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Today Tonight Tomorrow

Today, she hates him.

It’s the last day of senior year. Rowan Roth and Neil McNair have been bitter rivals for all of high school, clashing on test scores, student council elections, and even gym class pull-up contests. While Rowan, who secretly wants to write romance novels, is anxious about the future, she’d love to beat her infuriating nemesis one last time.

Tonight, she puts up with him.

When Neil is named valedictorian, Rowan has only one chance at victory: Howl, a senior class game that takes them all over Seattle, a farewell tour of the city she loves. But after learning a group of seniors is out to get them, she and Neil reluctantly decide to team up until they’re the last players left—and then they’ll destroy each other.

As Rowan spends more time with Neil, she realizes he’s much more than the awkward linguistics nerd she’s sparred with for the past four years. And, perhaps, this boy she claims to despise might actually be the boy of her dreams.

Tomorrow…maybe she’s already fallen for him.

THE HATING GAME meets NICK AND NORAH’S INFINITE PLAYLIST by way of Morgan Matson in this unforgettable romantic comedy about two rival overachievers whose relationship completely transforms over the course of twenty-four hours.

My Review

I could not put this book down. It’s funny. TODAY TONIGHT TOMORROW is packed with the kind of snappy banter that I adore. It’s thoughtful. The story made me rethink my feelings on romance as a reading genre. And most of all, it’s desperately romantic.

Most of the book centers around a contest called The Howl, in which the whole senior class participates in a kind of photo scavenger hunt all around Seattle. It’s a race to win a prize of $5000, which both Rowan and Neil fiercely need. The contest gave the story a straightforward structure and high stakes. But what makes TODAY TONIGHT TOMORROW really magical, though, is the relationship between Rowan and Neil themselves.

I’m kind of a sucker for enemies-to-lovers stories anyway, but this one had this perfect mix of wit, awkwardness, self-doubt, vulnerability, and passion. I cannot say this enough: I. Loved. It.

A Discussion of Romance

A brief note on the views about romance in the story: In the book, Rowan loves romance novels and has written one herself. She muses about the fact that romance as a genre centers women in a way that other media does not, and yet people often treat it with disdain. She discusses how reading romance also made her feel empowered and comfortable talking about sex.

Her love for romance is really woven into the story, so it doesn’t feel out of place or very preachy. It made me stop and consider the way media represents women. My daughter has participated in a local children’s theater group, and often the majority of the speaking roles are for male characters. I feel like this is something where, once you start noticing it, you kind of can’t stop. Ha.

At any rate, I really appreciated this part of TODAY TONIGHT TOMORROW and especially the letter at the end from the author which explained some of her own evolution on those ideas.

All in all, fans of THE ONLY THING WORSE THAN ME IS YOU by Lily Anderson really need to check this one out. If you like witty banter and enemies-to-lovers stories, put TODAY TONIGHT TOMORROW at the top of your list!

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 16 up.

Representation
Major characters are Jewish. Side characters are Korean, bisexual, and lesbian.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used fairly frequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl. References to sex. One scene shows characters discussing having sex and then briefly doing so.

Spiritual Content
Rowan’s family has Shabbat dinner together. References to bar mitzvah and bat mitzvah celebrations and communities of faith.

Violent Content
References to a man beating up a teenager and a girl getting into a fistfight. Some micro and not-so-micro aggressions against Jewish characters.

Drug Content
Neil and Rowan buy cookies with pot in them and get high together.

Note: I received a free copy of TODAY TONIGHT TOMORROW in exchange for my honest review. This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support the costs of running this blog.

Review: The Voyage of the Sandpiper by Jessica Glasner

Book Review and Content, Christian World-View, Clean Fiction, Historical, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , ,

The Voyage of the Sandpiper
Jessica Glasner
Hope House Press
Published July 17, 2019

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Goodreads

About The Voyage of the Sandpiper

“Your life will never be exciting if you’re afraid to risk becoming cold and wet. You and I, we throw caution to the wind! We swim to the greatest depths! We face the sea!”

Summer, 1939. When fifteen-year-old Agatha’s mother falls gravely ill, she is shipped off to the coast of Maine to live with her aunt, Edith Philipa Gordan, an eccentric writer who hasn’t finished a novel in decades and paints birds obsessively. What begins as a dull summer immediately takes a turn towards adventure with the arrival of Edie’s old beau, Horatio Macleay, and his handsome nephew.

With WWII looming on the horizon, Agatha and her new group of friends s race against time and across continents to complete their mission before it is too late. Along the way, Agatha learns the importance of trusting in the perfect timing of God and discovers the power of hope.

Write caption…

My Review

I think my favorite thing about this book is the time at which the story is set. If you read historical fiction at all, you’ve probably read at least one book about WWII– there are tons of books that focus on that time period, and it’s easy to understand why.

I liked that THE VOYAGE OF THE SANDPIPER showed events leading up to the war. There were a couple of moments where things came up that I had never thought about, known, or realized before. (For instance, when Germany adopted laws stripping Jewish citizens of certain rights, one character speaks against it, and another responds pointing out that she’s an American and making a comparison between the German laws against Jews and the Jim Crow laws against Black Americans. I can’t believe I’ve never thought of those two things side by side before– both horribly wrong. I just hadn’t considered them both in the same breath.)

Another thing I liked was the slow burn romance. There’s some tension and attraction, but so many other thing are happening. It wouldn’t have felt authentic at all if the characters stopped in the midst of a crisis to explore their feelings for one another. I think it would have been more satisfying if there had been a more active resolution to that part of the story, though.

I do wish that Agatha (who’s called Piper in the book) had more of an active role in the story. In terms of the active, heroic role, the story belongs more to her aunt Edie, and Agatha functions more as a sort of sidekick. I found myself wishing that it had been Agatha in the driver’s seat for some of the big intense moments in the story, instead of Agatha waiting to hear how her aunt manages to save the day.

I thought the spiritual elements were well-integrated into the story and felt natural to the characters. And I enjoyed the evolution of the characters and their relationships with one another. Overall, I think this is a nice read for historical fiction fans, and does a great job exploring some events leading up to WWII.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 13 up.

Representation
Some characters are Jewish. All are European or American.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
Some attraction between Agatha and a boy.

Spiritual Content
Agatha and her aunt depend on their faith and take courage from reading the Bible to face their fears. A couple times, the story shows Agatha reading the Bible and how the scriptures specifically apply to situations she faces.

Violent Content
A brief description of a concentration camp. Situations of peril or urgency.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support the costs of running this blog. I received a free copy of THE VOYAGE OF THE SANDPIPER in exchange for my honest review.

Review: In the Neighborhood of True by Susan Kaplan Carlton

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In the Neighborhood of True
Susan Kaplan Carlton
Algonquin Young Readers
Available April 9, 2019

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

About IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD OF TRUE

After her father’s death, Ruth Robb and her family transplant themselves in the summer of 1958 from New York City to Atlanta—the land of debutantes, sweet tea, and the Ku Klux Klan. In her new hometown, Ruth quickly figures out she can be Jewish or she can be popular, but she can’t be both. Eager to fit in with the blond girls in the “pastel posse,” Ruth decides to hide her religion. Before she knows it, she is falling for the handsome and charming Davis and sipping Cokes with him and his friends at the all-white, all-Christian Club.

Does it matter that Ruth’s mother makes her attend services at the local synagogue every week? Not as long as nobody outside her family knows the truth. At temple Ruth meets Max, who is serious and intense about the fight for social justice, and now she is caught between two worlds, two religions, and two boys. But when a violent hate crime brings the different parts of Ruth’s life into sharp conflict, she will have to choose between all she’s come to love about her new life and standing up for what she believes.

My Review

I found IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD OF TRUE to be utterly addicting to read. I’d sneak a few more pages in while microwaving the baby’s lunch. Or while waiting for my older daughter to finish brushing her teeth before bed. Anytime I had more than 30 seconds free, I jumped right back into the book.

I loved Ruth’s voice. She’s frank, pragmatic and constantly caught me off guard (in a great way) with colorful descriptions of things. At first she doesn’t seem bothered by hiding her identity. She values fitting in so much more than her faith, which feels especially far away after her father’s death. She knows she’s being shallow about it. But as things happen and she begins to form connections within her faith community, the racism in her debutante community only becomes more stark and uncomfortable to Ruth. I thought that progression felt very real, raw, and powerful.

The only thing I didn’t love about IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD OF TRUE was an element of the ending. I don’t want to give anything away, so I’ll add a spoiler section at the end of this post to talk about that. Over all, though, I really enjoyed the book. Check out the content section below for notes on those topics.

Recommended for ages 16 up.

Representation
Ruth, her sisters, and her mother are Jewish. Other characters are white. Many of the upscale clubs and community events are still closed to Jews and other races at the time the story happens. The story condemns those attitudes.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
15-20 instances of mild to strong profanity.

Romance/Sexual Content
Brief kissing between boy and girl. Ruth undresses with a boyfriend. She and her sister discuss sex– which her sister, who’s in college, seems to have a lot of. Her sister sends her a box of condoms. Ruth makes plans to have sex with her boyfriend on prom night. The scene describes the lead into the event but not much of the event itself.

Spiritual Content
Ruth attends synagogue services with her mom and sister. Most of the sermon that’s related to us has to do with social justice issues.

Violent Content
Ruth’s mother tells her about a young black man who was lynched. One of the boys in Ruth’s friend circle makes some ugly racist comments. See spoiler section for more.

Drug Content
Ruth’s friends offer her Southern Comfort, which gets her very drunk the first time she has it. She drinks some again another time.

Note: I received a free copy of IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD OF TRUE in exchange for my honest review. This post contains affiliate links, which don’t cost the reader anything, but when used, help support my blog.

About Susan Kaplan Carlton

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram

Carlton currently teaches writing at Boston University. She is the author of the YA novels Love & Haight and Lobsterland. Her writing has also appeared in Self,Elle, Mademoiselle, and Seventeen. She lived for a time with her family in Atlanta, where her daughters learned the finer points of etiquette from a little pink book and the power of social justice from their synagogue.

SPOILER
A bomb destroys a building. No one is hurt, but it’s a building dear to many people, and clearly awful and traumatic.

So here’s my issue with the end of the book: I liked the ending as a whole. Ruth does the right thing, stands up for herself and her community, makes a place for herself– her real self. I loved that. But I felt like she ultimately chose sides.

One of her debutante friends continued to reach out to her after the trial and after Ruth goes public with her faith. But instead of acknowledging that reach across the gap, Ruth sort of retreated to her side and said she was too busy for this friendship. It’s a pretty realistic ending, so I get it.

I guess I just wanted those girls to be bigger than the moment they were in, if that makes sense. I wanted them to be able to reach across lines of race and faith and say those things didn’t matter, and I didn’t feel like that was the message there. Seriously, though, I loved the book other than that and of course, some of the content.