Escape in Time

April 15, 2015
Grades 4-6 After 12-year-old Nessya snoops around her grandmother's apartment, looking for evidence to prove or disprove a rumor she is a Holocaust survivor, Grandma Miri decides the time for keeping secrets has passed. Writing an account of her Jewish family's years in Hungary during the German occupation, she hands the document to Nessya, along with a packet of letters from that dark time. Her stories of risks, persecution, and narrow escapes emphasize the closeness of her family and the resourcefulness shown by her father, mother, and three older sisters as they struggled for survival. Canadian portrait artist McGaw contributes a sensitive full-page illustration for each of the 14 chapters. The book was first published in 2006 in Israel, which serves as the setting for Nessya's first-person narrative. Because she is learning about her grandmother's experiences along with readers, a good deal of history can be included in a natural-sounding way without interrupting the flow of the storytelling. Like Nessya, readers will be moved by the family's story, which is evidently based on memoirs.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)