Horn Book Review
In this historical-fiction verse novel, says young Moishe Moskowitz: The wolves are coming to Poland, a country that has no use for us. / A country that bullies its citizens / beats up on us because we are different. And soon the Nazi wolves reveal their plans: the ghetto, forced-labor camps, concentration camps, death marches. Smith tells Moishes story in the first person, in spare, eloquent verse. They are trying to erase us / as if we are scribbles on a chalkboard. Throughout, however, Moishe keeps in his heart his fathers words, Where there is hope, / there is life. Such hope comes in the form of Janek, the neighbor who hides Moishes family in his barn; the Auschwitz kapo who inexplicably protects Moishe; and, finally, a group of women in Czechoslovakia who, risking their own lives, toss loaves of bread into the open cattle car transporting Jewish prisoners. It is life. / It is bread, / still warm from the oven. / It is raining warm bread. This last act restores Moishes faith in humanity (when the wolves come to take you away, / one good person is all you need) and helps give him the courage and strength to survive the last brutal weeks of the war. Occasional watercolor-wash sketches complement the poems, adding a memorable visual dimension. An authors note by Moskowitz-Sweet tells more about her late father Moishe, on whose memories this novel is based. dean Schneider September/October 2019 p.95(c) Copyright 2019. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Moishe Moskowitz's painful experiences in the Holocaust are expressed in brief, gut-wrenching poems. Moishe knows fear; he must avoid the Polish boys who will beat him for being Jewish. When the Nazis come in 1939, the danger grows exponentially, but they "could not have imagined such evil" would engulf them. Moishe views the Nazis as prowling, voracious wolves, and that metaphor is used throughout the poems. Changes come quickly: yellow stars, disappearances, and forced labor. They are driven from their home and pushed into a ghetto, followed by liquidation, murders, and deportation to the concentration camps. His family is torn from him, as "the Nazis peel us like onions," his mother and sister, father, brother. He endures unending deprivation and starvation. Kindness is rare and punishable by death, but a Christian friend hides the family in the early days, a political prisoner gives him a bit of extra food, and, near the end, a group of Czech women throw warm, fresh bread into the cattle cars. Gray-toned thumbnail sketches can only hint at the devastating emotions. Moishe's daughter provides the story, as told to her by her father, and entrusts Smith to pen poems that strike at the heart of each moment, each fear, each horror and make it personal for readers even as time erases witnesses.A deeply moving, beautifully written portrayal of an evil that cannot be allowed to be forgotten. (author's note) (Historical verse fiction. 10-adult) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
