I don't like Holocaust books for the obvious reasons. I just had the chance to go to Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, so the emotions are even greater now. So why did I read this book you ask? I think I didn't read the synopsis very carefully and thought it was something else. But once I started reading, I couldn't put it down even as I knew there would be no happy ending. Chaim and Gittel are living in the Lodz Ghetto with their parents. They are twins with their own language. Chaim only speaks in 5 word sentences but writes poetry that moves to tears. Gittel is full of life and knows what her brother is thinking. When their family is called up to be relocated, their parents decide to make a run for it. They go on a dangerous mission to find the partisans who can help them cross the border from Poland into Russia. It is fraught with peril and hardship. When they reach the partisans, the kids are separated from their parents who will meet up with them later. Chaim and Gittel wind up in a work camp where they suffer from starvation, typhoid, cold and mistreatment. When a doctor arrives to help with the typhoid epidemic, the kids think they are finally going to get some help. All but Chaim, he doesn't trust the doctor with the smile that doesn't reach his eyes. The horrors they face are only made survivable through the fact that they have each other. The story is told through Chaim's eyes with inserts from Gittlel's prospective. It is heartbreaking, all the more because it happened. The power of the written word saves Chaim in his bleakest moments and their determination to live for each other gets them through the roughest of times. I wish we had all learned a lesson from this time period, but I fear we haven't. Jane Yolen has written what is sure to become a must read book for everyone. Read with your tissues near, that is my advice to you my friends. Happy reading.
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