Review: The Night War
The Night War by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley Dial (imprint of Penguin Random House), 2024 Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Sarah Aronson Buy at Bookshop.org “We don’t choose how we feel, but we choose how we act. Choose courage.” The Night War is a story about the Holocaust. It’s a story about bravery at a time when choices were not clear. But mostly, it’s a story of strong women and girls at a time when strength was needed. The novel follows twelve-year-old Miriam Schrieber, a Jewish girl fighting to survive the horrors of WWII. At the start of the story, she lives with her family in occupied France. When the adults are rounded up, Miriam and her neighbor’s two-year-old daughter Nora, escape in the chaos. Nora’s mom implores her to be brave—and to meet them in Zurich. Saved by a Catholic nun, the children are sent to Chenonceaux, at the border of occupied France and French-controlled Vichy. Nora goes to a young Catholic couple wanting to start a family, while Miri—pretending to be Chri...