No Pretty Pictures: a child of war

No Pretty Pictures: a child of war	Avon Books
Written by Anita Lobel	2000
Holocaust Autobiography	190 pages
Reading Level ages 12-16	National Book Award Finalist

Summary

Anita is a Polish girl who has a brother, father and mother, and a nanny that watches over her. The war just began when her father never returned from the store. She recalls that her mother had false papers that allowed her to work and get money. Soon, there was not enough to feed all four of them. So their Catholic nanny takes them as her own and roams the countryside bartering for food. Anita’s brother is disguised as a girl and they are inseparable. The three of them take refuge at a church until the Nazis found them. The Nazis took Anita and her brother to a concentration camp. They were with their uncle and aunt and were able to be returned to their nanny. Their mother reunites with them and hides in the ghetto. Without papers, the children don’t exist and they walk out and over bridge guarded by Nazis. They are found again and passed from camp to camp as the war draws to an end and the Nazis are retreating. When the camps are liberated, Anita and her brother are sent to Sweden to recover from tuberculosis. There they learn of their nanny’s death and that their parents are back home in Poland. When they recover, the family is reunited and eventually moves to the United States.

Reaction

It was an intense book. She wrote without much foreshadow, so every time Nazis were looking for them, was tense and suspenseful. It was written from a child’s perspective, without understanding and with a lot of fear and mistrust.

Potential Problems

Even though this is written from a child’s view, it would be inappropriate for younger children. It is about war and has the facts of dying, murder, fear and stealing to try and survive.

Recommendations

I would recommend this book to older readers. This is for those who are interested reading stories about the Holocaust and true accounts from that time.