Saturday, August 29, 2009

When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit

Cover Image

Title: When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit
Author: Judith Kerr
Publisher: Coward
Price: $6.99 USD
Release: 1971

Grade: B
Rating: 12+

Summary: (From Amazon)
Among Hitler's other crimes, he stole Anna's pink rabbit (when he confiscated all of her Jewish family's property) and made her a refugee at the age of ten - moving from Berlin to Switzerland, France and England in search of a new home. While she only vaguely comprehends the events that worry her parents so much (wondering what it means when people say that Hitler will "get" the Jews and that her father has "a price on his head"), Anna writes poems about disasters and suffers from nightmares. Most of the time, however, she is absorbed by the minor difficulties of adjusting to expatriation - the awkward attentions of Swiss boys, struggles with the French language, brother Max's effortless adaptabilty - and the adventure of newfound poverty. The title, though initially disconcerting, really says it all: the repercussions of Nazism seen through a child's personalizing perspective and recalled with autobiographical verity.

My thoughts:
This was one of the first holocaust/world war 2 novels I read. I was in the 5th grade at the time and was devouring every holocaust book thrown at me. I didn’t realize until a bit later that there were fiction ones as well. I remember I loved this book! It was great to see such a traumatic time in World History through a Childs eye.

Recommendation:
Younger Children with interest in the Holocaust

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I've never heard of this one, but it sounds powerful! I definitely went through a period where I was reading everything about WWII and the Holocaust I could possibly find. College definitely reawakened that interest, too!