If I Should Die Before I Wake
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Overview
Hilary hates Jews. As part of a neo-Nazi gang in her town, she's finally found a sense of belonging. But when she's critically injured in an accident, everything changes.
Somehow, in her mind, she has become Chana, a Jewish girl fighting for her own life in the ghettos and concentration camps of World War II.
Han Nolan offers powerful insight into one young woman's survival through the Holocaust and another's journey out of hatred and self-loathing.
Reader's guide and an interview with the author included.
As Hilary, a Neo-Nazi initiate, lies in a coma, she is transported back to Poland at the onset of World War II into the life of a Jewish teenager.
Synopsis
A neo-Nazi teen is transported back in time to World War II Poland, where she is now a Jewish girl in a Nazi ghetto.
The ALAN Review
As I write, Schindler's List plays nearby and Florida's governor has just signed a bill requiring the study of the Holocaust and the topic of genocide to become regular fixtures of the secondary-school curriculum. It is ironic that I am asked to review If I Die Before I Wake, the first-person-singular story of a Neo-Nazi skinhead who becomes transformed into a caring and loving human being. Knocked into a coma by a motorcycle accident, Hilary, the Neo-Nazi initiate, lands in a Jewish hospital, where, moving in and out of consciousness, she travels through her dreams to Poland at the onset of World War II. There, in her mind's eye, she becomes, of all people, Chana, a young Jewish girl whose family has been sent by the Nazis to live in a Jewish ghetto. In Chana's horrifying world, death is an everyday occurrence and the next stop for most of its residents is Auschwitz. This is a good read, perfect to accompany a discussion of Schindler's List, and invaluable as a resource to understanding the incomprehensible.
Editorials
From the Publisher
"Bold . . . deeply felt and often compelling."—Kirkus Reviews"Brilliantly rendered."—Booklist
"Page-turning."—VOYA
The ALAN Review -
As I write, Schindler's List plays nearby and Florida's governor has just signed a bill requiring the study of the Holocaust and the topic of genocide to become regular fixtures of the secondary-school curriculum. It is ironic that I am asked to review If I Die Before I Wake, the first-person-singular story of a Neo-Nazi skinhead who becomes transformed into a caring and loving human being. Knocked into a coma by a motorcycle accident, Hilary, the Neo-Nazi initiate, lands in a Jewish hospital, where, moving in and out of consciousness, she travels through her dreams to Poland at the onset of World War II. There, in her mind's eye, she becomes, of all people, Chana, a young Jewish girl whose family has been sent by the Nazis to live in a Jewish ghetto. In Chana's horrifying world, death is an everyday occurrence and the next stop for most of its residents is Auschwitz. This is a good read, perfect to accompany a discussion of Schindler's List, and invaluable as a resource to understanding the incomprehensible.Children's Literature
Can an alienated, Jew-hating, Neo-Nazi teenager have lived a previous life as a Polish Jewish girl in the Lodz ghetto during the Holocaust? Can a motorcycle accident which lands her comatose in a Jewish hospital be the vehicle for her tumbling through time repeatedly to relive that life while fighting for this one? Can her horrendous experiences of surviving but losing everything, including her family, and finally giving up her last food to another girl shake her out of the self-destructive life she has fashioned for herself here in the today world? This is an intriguing and touching story that weaves the terrible drama of the Nazis' destruction of an entire population together with the age-old belief in reincarnation and past lives. Originally published in 1994, it is now in its second soft cover edition and includes a "Chat Page" of questions to ponder as well as an interview with the author. An appealing and powerful story. 2003 (1994), Harcourt,— Judy Chernak