Review: Gottika
Gottika by Helaine Becker, illustrated by Vero Navarro Green Bean Books Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Kathy Bloomfield Buy at Bookshop.org This book is a younger middle grade version of the graphic novel, Gottika , published in 2014 for older readers. Based on the Golem legend and set in a dystopian future, this is the story of Dany and his family and their life as Stoons in Gottika. The Stoons are oppressed by the Gottikins. Stoons are made to wear red berets when they leave their homes. They are physically, verbally, and economically abused, are under a strict curfew, and live in a walled off part of the city (the favala.) There are many obvious parallels to Jewish life in Nazi Germany. This is a wild story filled with deceit, betrayal, mystery and redemption. There are a few graphic novel style illustrations in the book. When “the Troubles” come, Dany’s father, Reb Judah, returns to his magician roots and creates a man out of clay – a Gol. As in the legend, the Gol protects the