Echoes of World War Two

School Library Journal

Gr 5-9-A welcome look at the human side of the long and bloody conflict in which civilians as well as combatants suffered. Marx tells the stories of six diverse survivors who were children or young adults during the years 1939- 1945: Hans, a German Jew; Andre-Paule, the daughter of a French diplomat; Gladys, an English evacuee; Inoo, the adopted daughter of a German general; Rupert, the son of an English sugar exporter and secret agent; and Toshi, the daughter of a Japanese businessman. Marx draws heavily upon her subjects' own recollections and memories, and those of their family members and friends. Throughout these readable narratives, facts and details about the larger events going on are interwoven. An excellent selection of well-reproduced, historical black-and-white photographs with interest-holding captions add to the book's impact. Marx makes clear that all of her subjects had the will to survive; for as Toshi states, ``Children are amazingly strong...if they have to do the practical everyday things, they can.''-David A. Lindsey, Lakewood Junior/Senior High School, WA

Deborah Abbott

First published in England five years ago, this thoughtful volume introduces six children whose lives were irrevocably changed by the Second World War. Although the geographic and economic situations of the children vary, the same fear, devastation, separation, family upheaval, violence, and injustice mark them all: Hans Levy, a German Jew who escapes to Amsterdam; Andree-Paule Mason, a diplomat's daughter from Normandy who joins the French Resistance; Gladys Godley, an English evacuee; Inoo Foreman, adopted by a German family in Berlin, who, with her mother, barely keeps one step ahead of the invading Russians; Rupert Wilkinson, an English child in Manila sent with his family to a Philippine prisoner-of-war camp while his father is away; and Toshi Marks, a Japanese girl who barely survives in Yamanashi with her younger siblings. Beginning with short introductions describing the war action and circumstances of each family, the engrossing chapters contain a mixture of personal remembrances and descriptive narrative. Precise, well-labeled maps and haunting black-and-white photos document the families and the agonies of war. This volume offers a worldwide perspective--one that few others of the genre provide--heightened by conditions and emotions that bind us all.