Reviews

A few days ago, I picked up this and another Girls Survive title at the library to give this series a try. Yesterday, I realized that today would be 11/9, the eighty-third anniversary of Kristallnacht. I was glad to have the opportunity to read this book to honor the anniversary, and am thankful that the timing worked out.

This book is just over a hundred pages long, but it is incredibly powerful and intense. The story follows the experiences of Ruth, a young Jewish girl who lives in Frankfurt, Germany, and the book is incredibly historically accurate. The dialogue is sometimes written in more modern vernacular, but the book presents the true events of Kristallnacht with vivid, accurate detail, and the fictionalized elements of the story all ring true to real people's experiences. Ruth's responses to injustice are also incredibly realistic, and I identified with the character because of her intense anger and desire to fight.

Even though this book is phenomenal, it will be too distressing for some children in the target audience. It is VERY intense, with social ostracizing, hate-filled vandalism, multiple physical assaults, and terror attacks against Jewish homes and synagogues playing out on the page in vivid detail. It also includes

Spoiler

family separation as Ruth's father is rounded up into a concentration camp and her mother sends her away to England on the Kindertransport

. This book is a very realistic, accurate introduction to the trauma that Jewish people experienced at this hinge-point in time, and the author vividly portrays the conflict that families experienced over what to do in response to escalating acts of prejudice and terror, but the absolute and unfiltered reality of this will be too much for some children.

I would encourage parents of sensitive children to preview this for their kids or read it along with them, but I would highly recommend this book to kids, teenagers, and adults. Even though this will be a quick read for people beyond the target audience, the story is very heavy and invites the reader to bear witness to historical tragedies and acts of hatred in a way that is genuinely meaningful and not sensationalized. The book also includes a note at the end where the author shares additional details, photographs, and a map, and mentions which specific elements of Ruth's story she took from survivors' testimonies. My only critique of this book is that it would have been nice to have an epilogue that indicated what happened to Ruth during and after the war, but this is an incredibly strong, accurate, and moving historical novel, and I highly recommend it.

jennybeastie's review against another edition

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5.0

Something about this one is a little more viscerally disturbing than the other books in the series thus far. More direct violence -- Ruth is directly attacked and thrown through a window. Also, her defiance is so ineffective -- which makes for an effective story, because it creates a feeling of helplessness in the readers, something the author heard repeatedly from the people who's experience she based her book on. This is a grimmer story than the other two, but Ruth is a likable and relateable character.

america_maxon1096's review against another edition

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dark sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

oceanwriter's review against another edition

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5.0

I wish this series had been around when I was a kid. I would have been an avid reader. Someone on a forum brought the Girls Survive books to my attention. A quick read, obviously, since it’s written for younger readers, but so well done.

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