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From the two-time Newbery Honor-winning author of The War That Saved My Life and Fighting Words comes a middle grade novel set at the border between freedom and fear in World War II France, at the...
From the two-time Newbery Honor-winning author of The War That Saved My Life and Fighting Words comes a middle grade novel set at the border between freedom and fear in World War II France, at the...
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From the two-time Newbery Honor-winning author of The War That Saved My Life and Fighting Words comes a middle grade novel set at the border between freedom and fear in World War II France, at the Chateau de Chenonceau, where a Jewish girl who has lost everything but her life must decide whether to risk even that to bring others to freedom.
“We don’t choose how we feel, but we choose how we act.”
It’s 1942. German Nazis occupy much of France. And twelve-year-old Miriam, who is Jewish, is not safe. With help and quick thinking, Miri is saved from the roundup that takes her entire Jewish neighborhood. She escapes Paris, landing in a small French village, where the spires of the famous Chateau de Chenonceau rise high into the sky, its bridge across the River Cher like a promise, a fairy tale.
But Miri’s life is no fairy tale. Her parents are gone—maybe alive, maybe not. Taken in at the boarding school near the chateau, pretending to be Catholic to escape Nazi capture, Miri volunteers one night to undertake a deadly task, one that spans the castle grounds, its bridge, and the very border to freedom. Here is her chance to escape—hopefully to find her parents. But will she take it? One thing is certain: The person Miri meets that night will save her life. And the person Miri becomes that night could save the lives of many more.
In her return to the era of The War that Saved My Life and The War I Finally Won, Kimberly Brubaker Bradley brings a new and different story, one with a mystical twist, that explores a little-known slice of World War II history, a highly unusual friendship, and the power of choosing courage even when—especially when—there are no good choices to be had.
* Map and detailed author's note included. *
“Compelling [with] a hint of magic [that] becomes as satisfying as the whole of this fine novel.” —Booklist
"Historical fiction at its finest. [A] masterpiece . . . Readers will be wholeheartedly rewarded." —SLJ (starred review)
"Poignant . . . A gripping, humane tale." —Kirkus (starred review)
"A thrilling plot [and] thought-provoking read." —Common Sense Media (a Common Sense Selection)
"Fast-paced, suspenseful, and heart-wrenching. . . . Highly recommended." —Historical Novel Society
"A deeply sympathetic character facing increasingly dangerous and suspenseful circumstances.” —PW
“Engaging [and] imaginative [with] emotional weight and contemporary appeal.” —The Horn Book
"A must-read." —YA and Kids Books Central
Excerpts-
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From the cover
Chapter One
July 10, 1942—Paris, France
I could hear sirens. Sirens meant trouble.
“Nothing to worry about, Miri,” Mama said, in her usual soft Yiddish. She didn’t look up from mending the pocket of my other dress.
“You don’t know that,” I said.
Her eyes flicked toward me. “It’s a fire engine, not a police sedan.”
“You can tell the difference?”
“I can.”
I knew she meant to reassure me, but I didn’t quite believe her. To me the two sounded the same. Ever since Monsieur Rosenbaum had been taken away, nearly two years ago now, the sound of sirens made my stomach hurt and my vision swim. Mama thought she understood. I let her think she did.
Now I took a deep breath. Released it slowly. Far below, the sirens continued. “I’m going up,” I said.
My mother pressed her lips together. Papa insisted she let me climb onto the roof, but she hated it when I did. Our apartment was on the sixth floor of our building, so if I did fall I would splatter, but I never feared falling. The roof was the only place in Paris I felt safe. Nothing could touch me there.
I moved our red geranium in its clay pot away from the window. I stretched one foot onto the top of the metal grille that kept things from falling out our window, grabbed the window frame, and heaved myself up so I was standing on the grille. From there it was easy to scramble up the slate tiles, still cool in the morning sun. Our window was a dormer on the top floor: It had its own little roof like a hat. I straddled the hat with my legs and let my head and shoulders rest against the main roof. I turned my face to the blue summer sky.
Sirens still wailed, but I could breathe easier now.
It had been my fault the Nazis took Monsieur Rosenbaum away. No one else knew that. I didn’t have the courage to confess it, not even to my mother.
It happened not long after the Germans invaded Paris, in the summer of 1940 when I was ten. I’d been walking through the crowded streets of our neighborhood, the Pletzl, on my way home from school when I saw our neighbor Monsieur Rosenbaum standing in front of two German soldiers on the sidewalk just ahead of me. Monsieur Rosenbaum was talking to them, though I couldn’t hear his words. Suddenly the soldier with a dark mustache grabbed Monsieur Rosenbaum by one arm. With his other fist he punched Monsieur Rosenbaum in the face.
Monsieur Rosenbaum’s head snapped back. Blood sprayed from his nose. I screamed. I ran forward and threw myself between him and the soldier.
The soldier pushed me sideways, hard. I fell to the pavement, scraping my knees and biting the inside of my cheek.
The other soldier looked down at me and said, “Is this your father, little girl?”
I looked up at the three men. I tasted blood inside my mouth. My arms and legs, my entire body, froze. Only my head could move, and I shook it, to say no.
I shook my head.
“Well, then.” The first soldier kicked me aside. He and the other soldier shoved Monsieur Rosenbaum into the back of a police van parked on the street. The van drove away, siren blaring.
We hadn’t seen Monsieur Rosenbaum since.
I should have said yes, he was my father. I should have jumped to my feet. I should have fought them.
I should have done anything but what I had done.
I ran home breathless and threw up in the toilet at the end of our hall. Mama tucked me into her bed and I lay with my face against the wall, weeping. Before I could bring myself to tell my parents what had happened, neighbors were pounding on our...
Reviews-
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January 15, 2024
This well-paced novel by Bradley (Fighting Words), set in 1942 Nazi-occupied France, poses thoughtful questions about religious divides and parallels through the experiences of 12-year-old Miriam Schreiber, a German Jew who fled Berlin for Paris with her parents after Kristallnacht. When all the Jews in her neighborhood are rounded up, Miri is separated from her parents and escapes with two-year-old neighbor Nora. Saved by a Catholic nun, the children are sent to Chenonceaux, where the Chateau de Chenonceau straddles the border of occupied France and French-controlled Vichy. Nora is given to a Catholic family, while Miri—pretending to be Christian and going by Marie—is sent to a convent school, where she discovers that two nuns are secretly helping to smuggle Jews across the border. Suffering from fear and anxiety and plagued by guilt for choices she believes she failed to make to save her mother and Nora’s father, Miri—aided by a mysterious, imperious elderly woman—takes on risky responsibilities. Miri’s highly credible emotions and actions make for a deeply sympathetic character facing increasingly dangerous and suspenseful circumstances; secondary characters are satisfyingly complex. All characters present as white; several are Jewish. A historical note concludes. Ages 9–12. -
Gilli Messer conveys 12-year-old Miri's horror as the Nazis who occupy Paris threaten her Jewish family and friends. Miri's terror increases when she is separated from her parents and decides she must flee the citywide roundup of Jews with her 2-year-old neighbor, Nora. Messer convincingly portrays a kindly nun who relocates Miri to a girls' convent school in Chenonceau, a village near Catherine de' Medici's sixteenth-century castle. There Miri evades classmates' questions about her background and eventually circumvents her fear to become a part of courageous refugee rescues. Messer clearly depicts minor characters such as an elderly nun and creates a memorably imperious tone for the ghost of Catherine de' Medici. S.W. © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine
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Duration:8 hours, 23 minutesISBN:9780593744284Release date:Apr 09, 2024