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3.96 AVERAGE
3.96 AVERAGE
I was still trying to recover from Sophie's Choice. Heartbreaking - but with a lot of predictable moments. An important story, that I was very glad to have read.
By far one of the best books I have ever read. I highly recommend this book to anyone that likes to read, no matter what your "style" book is.
A good story not told well. Predictable and full of cliches. Could not continue after the first twenty-thirty pages.
This was a suggestion by a parent (our first book talk in 7th grade from a parent!!), and then she donated it to our classroom, so I HAD to read it. It was so very moving, intriguing, and a definite page turner. Every other chapter is told from either what is happening in 1942, or what is happening in 2002, and the stories merge in the last 1/3 of the book. It was a bit mature for 7th grade, but some of my students will be able to handle it, and it will stay with them for a very long time, I'm sure. I'm glad I read this one, as Sarah and Julia will stay in my heart.
3.5 stars
When the police come for Sarah's family in the middle of the night, and her brother doesn't want to get out of bed, she hides him in the cubby they used as a playhouse, locking the door and promising to come back for him. The problem, of course, is that the Jews in Paris that night weren't being rounded up to be counted, like she thought. They were being sent to prison camps, unlikely to ever return. (And the key to that locked cabinet was in her pocket the whole time.)
60 years later, Julie is writing an article about this night - the largest ever collection of Jewish people in Paris for the Nazis. When she finds out that her family's apartment was one of those vacated by the roundup, she sets out to find what happened to the people who had lived there, including a young girl named Sarah.
I loved the first 3/4 of this book, but then we find out what happened to Sarah, and the book became about Julie's marital problems, and that just didn't do it for me. I finished it, but the end of the story just didn't hold the magic that the beginning did.
When the police come for Sarah's family in the middle of the night, and her brother doesn't want to get out of bed, she hides him in the cubby they used as a playhouse, locking the door and promising to come back for him. The problem, of course, is that the Jews in Paris that night weren't being rounded up to be counted, like she thought. They were being sent to prison camps, unlikely to ever return. (And the key to that locked cabinet was in her pocket the whole time.)
60 years later, Julie is writing an article about this night - the largest ever collection of Jewish people in Paris for the Nazis. When she finds out that her family's apartment was one of those vacated by the roundup, she sets out to find what happened to the people who had lived there, including a young girl named Sarah.
I loved the first 3/4 of this book, but then we find out what happened to Sarah, and the book became about Julie's marital problems, and that just didn't do it for me. I finished it, but the end of the story just didn't hold the magic that the beginning did.
I don’t often give five stars but in my opinion this book definitely deserves this rating.
I knew of The Resistance and also of the collaborators but until reading this had been unaware of the involvement of the French police in rounding up Jewish people to be sent for extermination. The core of this story is harrowing but is softened by the insight into personalities and shows how secrets kept mould the lives of so many people. Different secrets about the same situation are kept and not until Julia persists in finding out one truth - what happened to Sarah - are these secrets revealed.
I knew of The Resistance and also of the collaborators but until reading this had been unaware of the involvement of the French police in rounding up Jewish people to be sent for extermination. The core of this story is harrowing but is softened by the insight into personalities and shows how secrets kept mould the lives of so many people. Different secrets about the same situation are kept and not until Julia persists in finding out one truth - what happened to Sarah - are these secrets revealed.
This book started out really solid. I read it at a fast clip. I was engaged. I was thinking it's a solid four stars. But the ending was predictable and cliche. Hence: three stars.
I would still recommend it, but caution the sappy ending.
I would still recommend it, but caution the sappy ending.
This book was both really good and really not great. The part set in 1942 was horrifically tragic and definitely I think everyone should know about the Vel d'Hiv. However, once the story was told exclusively from Julia's point of view it had a harder time holding my interest. I didn't really understand why she was so obsessed with finding Sarah. Not staying in the apartment, I get. But I really couldn't understand interrupting a vacation to meet up with her son - when that could just as easily have happened at some other time. And the book just seemed to keep going and going and going well past when I thought it could have ended. Not the worst I've read by any means, but not great.
The history part of this book was excellent, but the contemporary part became a bit annoying. I had figured out how it would end (although that part was a bit ambiguous), and I'm glad all was resolved, but I just didn't like the contemporary characters. LOVED the WWII history.