The Sydney Taylor Shmooze

Two Pieces of Chocolate by Kathy Kacer, illustrated by Gabrielle Grimard Second Story Press, 2024 Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Karen Shakman Buy at Bookshop.org Two Pieces of Chocolate tells the story of an act of kindness between a woman and a child in Bergen Belsen Concentration Camp at the end of the Holocaust. The story is ultimately one of survival and hope, despite the desperate circumstances of the characters. The author does not shy away from describing the conditions of the camp, including powerful sensory details, such as the smell of “rotting eggs and bad feet and human sweat”, and the sight of humans “stumbling past like sleepwalkers.” Thus, the author paints a picture of a dark time in history without sugar coating the circumstances. However, the story conveys how people, in the face of such inhumanity, may act with selflessness, as does the child when she encounters a fellow prisoner, late in pregnancy and terribly weak. This act of kindness is at the center of the ...

Hidden on the Hire Wire by Kathy Kacer Second Story Press, 2022 Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Merle Eisman Carrus Buy at Bookshop.org Hidden on the High Wire tells the story of a traveling family circus. Author Kathy Kacer begins the story in November, 1939 in Germany. Irene Danner is 13 years old and the star performer on the high wire for the Lorch Family Circus. She learned her balancing act from her grandfather, who has recently died. He passed the family business to her father, as the first Danner to run the Lorch family circus in four generations, as the ringmaster. These are difficult times for the Jewish people living in Germany and it is becoming dangerous and ultimately impossible for the Lorch Family to continue traveling and performing. The circus is sold and Irene's father is sent to serve in the army. Irene and her mother are hiding from the Nazis. Reading a circus poster, Irene discovers the perfect way to protect herself and her mother. She approaches a German f...

Under the Iron Bridge by Kathy Kacer Second Story Press Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Sandy Wasserman Buy at Bookshop.org In the months leading up to Kristallnacht (on Wednesday, November 9, 1938), we meet a class of German students: Jews and non-Jews, learning together at school in Dusseldorf. Boys are encouraged to join the Hitler Youth, and little by little it becomes clear to Paul what his beloved new German leadership is up to. He and his physically weaker friend, Harold, realize early on that they have to play the game as ‘good Germans’ but Paul also takes the risk of also joining a group of teenagers who meet to carry out counter tactics to sabotage Nazi efforts, under the shadows of the Iron Bridge. They are the Edelweiss Group, which after the war was honored for their efforts at Yad VaShem as Righteous Gentiles. Among their classmates is a Jewish friend, Analie, whom Paul saves by the end of the book.  Paul is the perfect example of a young person who is an upstander; ...

Call Across the Sea by Kathy Kacer Annick Press Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Sandy Wasserman Buy at Bookshop.org I was blown away by this book; I can’t say it any other way. While there’s the need for and interest in Holocaust books for children, so many teachers and parents are not comfortable with the negativity in so many of them, because of the fear of frightening children with graphic images of starvation and worse. This book, on the other hand, is totally positive in numerous ways! Uplifting! We meet the protagonist, a teen, a positive force! On the first page, we feel her love for Denmark, her understanding of her entire community including the Jewish people in it, her neighbors. We see her strength and character and desire to be part of a youth resistance movement when Hitler comes to power and the Nazis, the Gestapo, show up in growing numbers in Denmark. The reader is introduced into Henny’s school life, her entry into the Danish resistance, even the people wh...

Louder Than Words by Kathy Kacer Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Judith S. Greenblatt Every morning in this difficult time, I wake up and count my so numerous blessings. How my troubles pale when compared to the lives of Eldina Sternik and her family, as told by Kathy Kacer. With only the vocabulary available to her as the author of a book designed for Middle Schoolers, she has retold the remarkable story of how the three Sternik children were saved by Nina Pukas. It is set in Proskurov, a small town in the Ukraine, beginning in 1941. A world comes to life for us. As the terror mounts, public places are closed to Jews, jobs lost, and the Sterik’s house is burned down, either by Nazi’s or hoodlums inspired by Nazis. Finally, Mrs. Sternik is arrested by the Nazis. Through it all, at great danger to herself, Nina protects the children as her own as she guides them through the rest of the war. As twelve year old Dina tells us the story, we feel the increased tension and terror, as...