A Family Secret

While searching his grandmother’s attic for likely items to sell at a yard sale, Jeroen finds a photo album that brings back hard memories for his grandmother, Helena. Helena tells Jeroen for the first time about her experiences during the German occupation of the Netherlands during the Second World War, and mourns the loss of her Jewish best friend, Esther. Helena believes that her own father, a policeman and Nazi sympathizer, delivered Esther to the Nazis and that she died in a concentration camp. But after hearing her story, Jeroen makes a discovery and Helena realizes that her father kept an important secret from her.

While searching his grandmother’s attic for likely items to sell at a yard sale, Jeroen finds a photo album that brings back hard memories for his grandmother, Helena. Helena tells Jeroen for the first time about her experiences during the German occupation of the Netherlands during the Second World War, and mourns the loss of her Jewish best friend, Esther. Helena believes that her own father, a policeman and Nazi sympathizer, delivered Esther to the Nazis and that she died in a concentration camp. But after hearing her story, Jeroen makes a discovery and Helena realizes that her father kept an important secret from her.

VOYA

These two books each concern a grandmother who lived in The Netherlands during World War II telling their families about their experiences. The Search is the story of Esther, a Jewish woman who reconnects with a childhood friend, Helena, in the United States. Esther's and Helena's grandsons ask them about their lives and the story of how Esther's family was torn apart by the Holocaust emerges. In A Family Secret, Helen's grandson Jeroen, raids his grandmother's attic to find items to sell at a yard sale. He finds her old scrapbook, covering the years of the Nazi occupation. Helena tells Jeroen about her life at that time, including Esther's disappearance, how her father worked for the German occupying forces and how her brother joined the Resistance. The picture-book shaped tomes have art that is detailed yet clear, with bold colors and no shading, but because the characters have only a few stock facial expressions, the total effect comes across a bit "cartoony." The historical information is given didactically. Instead of using the art to drive the story, a character's head will float above the panel, narrating. The reader is being told the action instead of simply being shown it. The books' accuracy is impeccable, but their appeal is unclear. The information on the Holocaust is accurate and scary, but the art and color seem young for such heavy material. Perhaps classroom teachers can use them to entice reluctant readers into learning about the Holocaust. Reviewer: Geri Diorio

ERIC HEUVEL is one of the top graphic artists in the Netherlands. He concentrates on writing and illustrating educational graphic novels—three of which, including A Family Secret and The Search, have won the Dutch Comics Association’s category award. He lives in Zaandam.