Monday, October 15, 2007

Mock Newbery: Someone Named Eva by Joan Wolf

Title: Someone Named Eva
Author: Joan Wolf
Publisher: Clarion
ISBN-13: 978-06188535798
Starred review in: PW

Review: Eleven-year-old Milada had a normal life in Lidice, Czechoslovakia. All this changes when she, and everyone in town, is brutally arrested by the Nazis. The blond-haired, blue-eyed girl is separated from her family and sent away with other "Aryan" looking girls. She is renamed Eva and forcibly taught German. Bit by bit, her old identity is replaced by a proper German one. Her fortune changes yet again when she is adopted into the family of a high-ranking Nazi official. Milada tries hard to remember her old life and fight for her identity, but it is not until the end of the war when she is reunited with her mother that she regains her Czech self. Milada's struggle to remain true to herself through the ups and downs of life is poignant - especially when you realize that her story really happened during World War II. The book does a nice job of shedding light on a subject that's not often explored.

Review by: Debby K., Oradell

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