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theavidreaderandbibliophile's review against another edition
4.0
I just finished Escape in Time by Ronit Lowenstein-Malz. It is the story of Miri Eneman Malz’ experiences with her family during World War II. Her granddaughter is curious about her experiences. Her grandmother writes out the story with the aid of diaries and family letters. Nessya (the granddaughter) reads the accounts and cannot believe what her Grandmother went through during the war. Miri was living in Munkacs, Czechoslovakia in 1944. The city then became a part of Hungary during the war. Jews were rounded up by the Germans and forced to live in Ghettos (a fenced in area) where families lived four or more families per apartment. The Eneman family did everything possible to stay alive, together, and out of the camps.
I give Escape in Time 4.5 out of 5 stars. It is a good story and nicely written (lovely illustrations). It provides a different point of view from other books on this topic. The target audience for Escape in Time would be children who are middle school age. The book is written in a style that is easy to understand, but the topic is for older children (tweens).
I received a complimentary copy of this novel from NetGalley (and the publisher) in exchange for an honest review.
I give Escape in Time 4.5 out of 5 stars. It is a good story and nicely written (lovely illustrations). It provides a different point of view from other books on this topic. The target audience for Escape in Time would be children who are middle school age. The book is written in a style that is easy to understand, but the topic is for older children (tweens).
I received a complimentary copy of this novel from NetGalley (and the publisher) in exchange for an honest review.
pnwtinap's review
4.0
This is the story of Miri Eneman Malz’ experiences with her family during World War II. Her granddaughter is curious about her experiences so she writes out the story with the aid of diaries and family letters. Nessya (the granddaughter) reads the accounts and learns what her Grandmother went through during that time. This is an interesting way to understand the holocaust's impact on a family.
I didn't rank it any higher because it gets a bit long winded in the stories and i find it a little bit dull although interesting.
I received a copy of this book in exchange for a fair review.
I didn't rank it any higher because it gets a bit long winded in the stories and i find it a little bit dull although interesting.
I received a copy of this book in exchange for a fair review.
froggylibrarian1's review
3.0
This is a Holocaust novel written by a Jewish author and now being published in the US. In the book Nessya is shocked to find out that her grandmother, Miri, is a Holocaust survivor. Her grandmother has never talked about it before. After some prodding her grandmother decides to tell her story and the book is that retelling. The story is told through a narrative but also interspersed with what are supposed to be letters from different family members to each other. This letters were a way of documenting events but were not actually sent.
I thoroughly enjoyed the story itself. The family in the book was able to survive through the use of forges documents and essential hiding in plain sight. What I did not like was the format - I found it hard to follow and know who was telling what.
I thoroughly enjoyed the story itself. The family in the book was able to survive through the use of forges documents and essential hiding in plain sight. What I did not like was the format - I found it hard to follow and know who was telling what.
backonthealex's review against another edition
4.0
Living a comfortable life in Tel Aviv, Nessya, 12, is stunned to hear that her grandmother, Miri Malz, has been invited to speak at her school's Holocaust Remembrance Day program. Nessya has never heard her happy, smiling grandmother speak being a Holocaust survivor, and besides, she doesn't even have at tattoo AND she has her family's old photo albums - items always destroyed by the Nazis.
When Nessya and her friend Rachel cook up a scheme to get into Grandma Miri's apartment to search for evidence while she is out to look for clues, the plan backfires. But, is Grandma Miri really a survivor? For almost two weeks, Grandma Miri keeps to herself, seeing no one but her husband. When she finally does come to visit, she takes Nessya aside and begins to talk to her about her past.
Living in Munkács, Czechoslovakia, Miri Eneman was part of a large, loving family and life was pretty peaceful. The family thought they were Hungarian and pretty safe from the Nazis, until one night in the spring of 1944 it all changed with a knocking on their door. The family was being rounded up. That night, Miri's father escaped out the back window, leaving everyone to think he had run off and deserted his family. But in reality, that was just the beginning of his fight for their survival.
When she leaves, Grandma Miri gives Nessya a packet of letters written by her family members and tucked into their diaries, all of which her grandmother had spent two weeks translating for her granddaughter and including her own memories of her family during the Holocaust. The story of her family's survival is her gift to Nessya for her upcoming bat mitzvah.
Miri's story is riveting. The Eneman family is often on the run after escaping the Munkács Ghetto, in hiding and living in fear, separated from other family members and never knowing what is happening to them. All the while, Miri's father manages to anticipate what to do and stay one step ahead of Nazi actions, even hiding in plain sight in Budapest. At one point, they find themselves living in and caring for a grand apartment after the owner flees to Switzerland. Here, they lived across the street from the virulent anti-Semitic Hungarian pro-Nazi Arrow Cross Party's headquarters and under the nose to an equally anti-Semitic concierge. But can their collective luck whole out until the end of the war?
Escape in Time is a truly apt name for this novel about one Jewish family's survival during the Holocaust. It is a story of courage, daring, luck and survival doing whatever needs to be done. Lowenstein-Malz based this story on actual memoirs giving it a real sense of authenticity. The book is written in such a way that the reader reads Miri's story right along with Nessya, but there are occasional breaks where we see her reaction to what she is reading (don't be surprised if your reactions are similar to hers).
There aren't many good middle grade books about the fate of Hungarian Jews in WWII so this is a welcome additon to the body of Holocaust literature. For so long, they, like the Eneman family, thought they were safe, but it was just a question of time and politics and it all changed. It is one of the reasons that I found myself so drawn into Miri's memories, and her family's letters and diary entries. This is a slightly different Holocaust story in that, interestingly, no one in Grandma Miri's immediate family spends any time in a concentration camp, though extended family were sent there from the ghetto in 1944. Young readers will not only meet this courageous family, but they will also meet some really good people willing to help the Enemen family as well as some really hateful people who would turn them in in the blink of an eye.
Escape in Time was originally written in Hebrew and I found the translation to be a very smooth one. Having done some translating myself, I know it is often hard to get together all the elements that make a book great, but that wasn't a problem here.
Throughout this novel, there are realistic sepia-toned portrait illustrations that enhance the narration about the Eneman family.
Escape in Time is a well-written book with well drawn, realistic characters for young readers interested in the Holocaust or historical fiction, and since it is a story of survival against great odds, don't be surprised if you shed a few tears along with Nessya. I did.
This book is recommended for readers age 9+
This was an EARC recieved from Net Galley
This review was originally posted at The Children's War
When Nessya and her friend Rachel cook up a scheme to get into Grandma Miri's apartment to search for evidence while she is out to look for clues, the plan backfires. But, is Grandma Miri really a survivor? For almost two weeks, Grandma Miri keeps to herself, seeing no one but her husband. When she finally does come to visit, she takes Nessya aside and begins to talk to her about her past.
Living in Munkács, Czechoslovakia, Miri Eneman was part of a large, loving family and life was pretty peaceful. The family thought they were Hungarian and pretty safe from the Nazis, until one night in the spring of 1944 it all changed with a knocking on their door. The family was being rounded up. That night, Miri's father escaped out the back window, leaving everyone to think he had run off and deserted his family. But in reality, that was just the beginning of his fight for their survival.
When she leaves, Grandma Miri gives Nessya a packet of letters written by her family members and tucked into their diaries, all of which her grandmother had spent two weeks translating for her granddaughter and including her own memories of her family during the Holocaust. The story of her family's survival is her gift to Nessya for her upcoming bat mitzvah.
Miri's story is riveting. The Eneman family is often on the run after escaping the Munkács Ghetto, in hiding and living in fear, separated from other family members and never knowing what is happening to them. All the while, Miri's father manages to anticipate what to do and stay one step ahead of Nazi actions, even hiding in plain sight in Budapest. At one point, they find themselves living in and caring for a grand apartment after the owner flees to Switzerland. Here, they lived across the street from the virulent anti-Semitic Hungarian pro-Nazi Arrow Cross Party's headquarters and under the nose to an equally anti-Semitic concierge. But can their collective luck whole out until the end of the war?
Escape in Time is a truly apt name for this novel about one Jewish family's survival during the Holocaust. It is a story of courage, daring, luck and survival doing whatever needs to be done. Lowenstein-Malz based this story on actual memoirs giving it a real sense of authenticity. The book is written in such a way that the reader reads Miri's story right along with Nessya, but there are occasional breaks where we see her reaction to what she is reading (don't be surprised if your reactions are similar to hers).
There aren't many good middle grade books about the fate of Hungarian Jews in WWII so this is a welcome additon to the body of Holocaust literature. For so long, they, like the Eneman family, thought they were safe, but it was just a question of time and politics and it all changed. It is one of the reasons that I found myself so drawn into Miri's memories, and her family's letters and diary entries. This is a slightly different Holocaust story in that, interestingly, no one in Grandma Miri's immediate family spends any time in a concentration camp, though extended family were sent there from the ghetto in 1944. Young readers will not only meet this courageous family, but they will also meet some really good people willing to help the Enemen family as well as some really hateful people who would turn them in in the blink of an eye.
Escape in Time was originally written in Hebrew and I found the translation to be a very smooth one. Having done some translating myself, I know it is often hard to get together all the elements that make a book great, but that wasn't a problem here.
Throughout this novel, there are realistic sepia-toned portrait illustrations that enhance the narration about the Eneman family.
Escape in Time is a well-written book with well drawn, realistic characters for young readers interested in the Holocaust or historical fiction, and since it is a story of survival against great odds, don't be surprised if you shed a few tears along with Nessya. I did.
This book is recommended for readers age 9+
This was an EARC recieved from Net Galley
This review was originally posted at The Children's War
elephant's review
4.0
Told as a story within a story, 12 year old Nessya has learned that her grandmother, Miri, is a Holocaust survivor, and when she asked about it, her grandmother wrote down the story for Nessya to read. Miri tells her family's story of escaping from Czechoslovakia, just in the nick of time before the Jews there were sent to concentration camps. She tells how they had to use false papers and how they moved to Hungary. They tried to warn other Jews about what was happening, but they refused to listen until it was too late. Nessya shares her feelings about her grandmother's bravery during that time. I think this book is a well told story about the Holocaust that is appropriate for middle school age children. I received this book free to review from Netgalley.
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