Puppet

December 22, 2008
An infamous late-19th-century trial in Hungary serves as the basis for Wiseman's (My Canary Yellow Star
) dramatic novel, which introduces the anti-Semitic propaganda of blood libel. When Julie's best friend, Esther, disappears, only Julie, the narrator, looks to Esther's life for clues. Everyone else in her small village rushes to accuse the even smaller community of Jews—the villagers know that Jews use the blood of Christian children to make “their Easter bread.” As Julie's efforts to offer evidence are silenced with threats (by her father and others), village officials coerce a “Jew boy” into false testimony. The author levers Julie into key positions in the plot too neatly, and the history does not run deep—readers won't get a sense for the roots of anti-Semitism in Hungary. These shortcomings notwithstanding, the book offers a valuable look at a historical phenomenon that contemporary readers would find difficult to comprehend; the subject matter will compel their attention. Ages 11–up.

March 1, 2009
Gr 5-9-The theme of anti-Semitism is at the center of this novel set during the Hungarian blood libel trial in 1883. Poverty, despair, and grueling physical work make up the lives of the adults and children in the village of Tisza-Eszlar, where the Jewish and Christian communities are segregated yet intertwined in daily business. Julie, a Christian teen, works as a servant in the local jailhouse and is concerned about her friend Esther, a poorly treated maid. When she disappears, her crazed mother claims that the rabbi and the kosher butcher killed her daughter for her blood to make matzoh for the upcoming Passover holiday. The ills of religious superstition, prejudice, and false accusations are told from a first-person perspective through Julie. Witnesses are produced, including Morris Scharf, the young son of the accused rabbi. Morris, like a puppet, is manipulated and coerced into falsely making claims of watching the alleged crime, until Esther's drowned body is discovered in the village's river with no physical evidence of her death by a slaughterer's knife. Taking her cues from the actual trial transcripts, Wiseman develops a dialogue-driven account ranging from emotional hysteria to serene justice. And while the crux of this event revolves around the trial, Julie's personal struggle with her own abusive father detracts from the realistic drama unfolding for the real victims in the case. Still this is a plausible retelling of a little-known episode in the long history of anti-Semitism.Rita Soltan, Youth Services Consultant, West Bloomfield, MI

Copyright 2009 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from February 15, 2009
Grades 7-12 *Starred Review* Times are hard in Julie Vamosis Hungarian village in the late nineteenth century, and the townspeople, including her father, blame the Jews. After Julies best friend, Esther, a young servant-girl, disappears, the rumor spreads that the Jews cut her throat and drained her blood to drink with their Passover matzos. The townspeople even beat a terrified Jewish kid, Morris, and force him to lie and say that he witnessed the ritual murder in the synagogue and that his own father took part. Kill the Jews is the mob's subsequent cry. Then Esthers drowned body is found in a stream, and there is no sign of any violence. Is Julie brave enough to face the mob with the truth? Will the court listen? Based on the records of a trial in 1883, this searing novel dramatizes virulent anti-Semitism from the viewpoint of a Christian child. There is some contrivance as Julie eavesdrops on the townspeoples plots and sees Morris beaten to confess. But her first-person narrative reveals good and bad people on all sides, including her own brutal dad, the kind Jewish doctor, and the sympathetic defense lawyer. The tension builds to the trial scenes, and the climax is electrifying with its public drama on the witness stand and the heartbreak between Morris and his dad. Adults will want this, too.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)