"In 1945, the war ended. The Germans surrendered, and the ghetto (Lodz, Poland) was liberated. Out of more than a quarter of a million people, only about 800 walked out of the ghetto. Of those who survived, only twelve were children."

This book is the story of one of these children. Syvia was in the ghetto from age 4 to the day before her 10th birthday.

This book was formatted in a kind of free verse. It reminded me of poetry. Poetry of life and of horror. I read it in one day, but I had to take More...

It sounds like such a cliché but I really could not put down this book, and I read it in one day; I don’t know how many hours it took but even though I read slowly, it wasn’t many. This book is riveting. I’ve read many fiction and non-fiction books about the Holocaust and this is now one of my favorites.

It’s a “based on truth” story, one of those fiction/non-fiction books.

The author interviewed her aunt, who was one of twelve children to survive the Lodz ghetto during the Nazi occupation in Wor More...

In the shocking, suspenseful book Yellow Star by Jennifer Roy, 4 year-old Syvia must be one of the luckiest girl in the world because she was one of the only 12 Jewish children who survived Holocaust. She grew up as a Jew during the time period of World War 2. She lives in a ghetto with her family with her two new friends Hava and Itka. The ghetto is full of diseases and thousands of other Jews. Afterwards Hava disappears after she took a short walk around the ghetto. Itka was forced to a train More...

Like some other true WWII stories written for children, this has been published as fiction; I'm not sure why.

I thought at first that the style was really going to annoy me (I wouldn't really call it free verse, myself, so much as just breaking up the lines), but after a couple of pages I got used to it. The voice is very believable as that of a child growing throughout the book from 4 years to 9 years. The story is simply told, but really stunning, especially in the second half. There's nothing More...

This is a fantastic Holocaust novel. The author wrote from the perspective of her aunt, who was one of 12 children to survive the Lodz ghetto in Poland. Her aunt was four and a half when she entered the ghetto, and ten when the liberation troops reached them. Roy has an amazing way of making the most simple statements incredibly gripping. The novel is written in poetic prose:
I wish I could
rip the star off
(carefully, stitch by stitch, so as not to ruin
my lovely coat),
because yellow is meant to be More...

This book was kind of a disappointment. It had such potential, you know? The story of one of the twelve child survivors of the Lodz ghetto. But this author's writing style brought a bland, almost painful flow to it. She really couldn't go right from the beginning, because she really struggled with giving it the right suspenseful feeling. I mean, it's the Holocaust! It's always supposed to have that looming feeling of danger, morbidity, sorrow. And this book just didn't. It was interesting, I'll More...

This book hit me hard. In a way similar to The Book Thief. It is written in verse, so it goes very fast. The fact that it is based on a real person makes the book even more powerful.

The story is about a young girl (she's 6 at the beginning of the book) who survived the Lodz ghetto during WWII in Poland. Only 12 children survived the Lodz ghetto and Syvia, was one of them.

The story was told so well, with the innocence of a child. I just couldn't put it down and as she finally leaves the ghetto I More...

A Story of Life and Survival Against Almost Extraordinary Odds

Made famous by "Schindler's List," the Lodz Ghetto during the Holocaust was a scene of almost indescribable horrors, a run-down area in which some 270,000 Jews were forced to settle during the Holocaust. Of these people, only about 800 survived; among the survivors were a mere 12 children. In a series of first-person free-verse chapters, author Jennifer Roy tells about Sylvia Perlmutter, one of those children. The book opens with an i More...

Yellow Star is a true story about a little girl named Syvia who is forced to be moved into the Lodz ghetto. She is in the ghetto with her older sister and her parents. She starts out in the ghetto as a small 4 and a half year old girl, and grows to be a strong and brave girl. The book follows her around as she struggles to stay alive and fight hunger.
What was really unique about how it’s written is that the whole book is written in free-verse poetry form.
“It is midnight, but
No one in my famil More...

I've had this book on my bookshelf for a number of years mostly because I thought (and still do think) that it was going to be an excellent verse reading. Now, that I've retired and was able to find time to read it, I can say that it was very well written. It's in the point of view of this little girl who lives with her family (mom, dad and older sister Dora) during the holocaust, as a jew in a Polish ghetto (Lhodz). Only 8 kids survived the experience (mostly because they herded them all out an More...

This is a story about the Holocaust as told by a very young Jewish child who lived during that time. In other reviews I see people mentioning the free verse poetry style, but I listened to it as an audiobook, and instead of poetry it just came across as a personal retelling. I appreciated the way the author aged the voice of the child as she grew from age 4 to age 9, and how she kept her feeling real throughout the book.

I think that this book would be a good introduction to younger children abou More...

I read this book in one day. It is written in free verse. A very interesting style. It is the story of a little girl and her family in Poland in the W.W.11. They were Jews and encamped by the Germans. It is interesting to see how ingenious they were in keeping their family together and surviving as a Jew while many of them were murdered or gassed. At one point the children were kept in a basement while the adults worked cleaning the "ghetto". that is the place they kept the Jews until they had t More...

I was warned!! Ashley told me it was sad. Jennifer Roy has told her Aunt Sylvia's story here, in Sylvia's own voice. It reads and looks like a novel in verse...it is devastating. Sylvia and her sister and parents live in Lodz, Poland before the war. When the Nazis take over Poland, Lodz becomes a ghetto, like the more famous Warsaw ghetto. Poor Sylvia is only 5, and doesn't understand. She doesn't understand when her friend disappears, she doesn't understand when there's less and less food, and More...

"Yellow Star" is a book about Syvia Perlmutter and her family's journey through the holocaust. It is written in Syvia's perspective when she was just a little girl and the author/Syvia's niece Jennifer Roy, wrote the book in the form of prose. The poems are written to portray Syvia's mind and are in present tense as if she was thinking them on the spot.

Well, first thing's first. If you have read any of my other reviews you know that I review books based on my personal opinion and preferences. A More...

This unique book is a very quick read and it so easily gets your attention. It's written in prose through first person experiences of a child who was in the Lodz ghetto in Poland when it was created by the Nazis when they invaded in 1939. It is something to consider how this family was able to survive through the wits and determination of the father.

It's always unsettling to think of the people, both old and especially the very young who were liquidated in this war. It's also interesting and I w More...

Yellow Star was an interesting read.... full of sadness, action, and a heart breaking story, but I cant tell you any farther or else I will spoil it!

What I liked about the book was how it was a book about the Holocaust, and I really enjoy reading books that have to do with world war 2, and the holocaust! This book makes me very angry when I read what the Nazi's did to the jews, but that was in the past. This book tells the story about a young girl who lives in a ghetto, and tries to survive with More...

Joe Bricker
Romaniuk/Moyer
Reading/L.A. Book Review 7
6 January 2010
Yellow Star:
This Is No Story Of Magic Bananas
My name is Syvia. I like to play on the playground and pick flowers. My sister looks out for me. Her name is Dora. My Papa loves me very much. So does my Mama! We live in Lotz. I think it’s in a big thing called Poland! So, what am I? I am four years old. And a half! I am being hunted by the German man Hitler! How would that feel, if you were Syvia? Scared, thrilled, excited, nervous? I More...

This was an AMAZING book and I enjoyed it very much. It is the story of a little girl and her life as a Jew in World War II. Her and her family all struggle to survive during the war, but stay strong, no matter the circumstances. They are all ordered by the Nazis to be placed in Ghettos in Lodz, Poland. Syvia, the main character, is only five years old at the time. Her and her family had to go on with life in the ghetto, watching others die all around them. Some are shot, some died of diseases, More...

SYDNEY TAYLOR HONOR BOOK (2007)

Format: Novel in free verse poetry
Age level: Middle school
Protagonist: Syvia, a young Jewish girl

Brief Summary: This is the true story of Syvia, a young Jewish girl in Poland during World War II, told by her niece. Syvia is about 4 years old when the war begins and 10 when it ends. She and her family were sent to the Lodz ghetto in Poland, and this is their story. Syvia's story offers a unique view of the Holocaust in that she spent the majority of the war in a ghe More...

This is a life changing book. The Holocaust is one of my favorite things to learn and read about. Although it is very heart breaking, there is just something inside me that wants to know more. This true story really brought out what remembering the holocaust is all about. I really enjoyed how Jennifer Roy told this story in poems. To me, that just made the book even more intense. Other people may think that the style of this book is "un-descriptive" and "boring", but when you really get to know More...

Genre: Biography/Informative/Poetry
Copyright: 2006

"Yellow Star" is the true story of Syvia Perlmutter and her family's struggle to survive in the Lodz ghetto during World War II. Written in verse, the book gives readers a haunting vision of how life was for Jews during World War II. Faced with the possibilities of starvation, freezing temperatures, loss of friends and family, and execution, Syvia's story is a perfect narrative of how hard things were.

I thought this book was very depressing, how More...

It's difficult to say I enjoyed this book, as it is about a Holocaust survivor, so I will instead say it is an engrossing tale that I could not put down.

From the front cover: In 1939, the Germans invaded the town of Lodz, Poland, and moved the Jewish population into a small part of the city called a ghetto. As the war progressed, 270,000 people were forced to settle in the ghetto under impossible conditions. At the end of the war, there were about 800 survivors. Of those who survived, only twelv More...

A historical fiction novel based on a true story, this book follows the story of a young girl, Sylvia, who was one of only 12 children to survive from the Lodz Ghetto during World War II. 4 ½ when her family was forced to move into the ghetto, Sylvia experienced a series of miracles that preserved her throughout the war. The book describes the difficult conditions of the Jewish families with little to eat and almost no heat in the wintertime. Compared to the Diary of Anne Frank which can be long More...

This story is of a four-year-old Polish Jewish girl, Syvia Perlmutter, told by her niece, but in the first person,the voice is little Syvia's. It is riveting!, I could not put it down and I read it in one sitting. The genre is prose and for some reason it is considered fiction: I do not understand why.
The fact that we do not have more gripping conversations about the Holocaust has always perplexed me. We should be talking to our children, grandchildren and all the children in our lives. This bo More...

The author tells the true story of her Aunt Syvia's experiences in the Lodz Ghetto during the Nazi occupation of Poland. The slightly fictionalized story, re-created from her aunt's taped narrative, is related by Syvia herself as a series of titled vignettes that cover the period from fall, 1939, when she is four years old, until January 1945–each one recounting a particular detail-filled memory in the child's life (a happy-colored yellow star sewn on her favorite orange coat; a hole in the ceme More...

Yellow Star is about a young girl Syvia-the author's aunt- and her family and their struggle to survive WWII. After getting relocated to the Lodz ghetto, after surviving the liquidation of children in the ghetto by hiding in a shallow grave in a nearby cemetery, the total liquidation of the entire ghetto by staying back to help clean up the ghetto and being hid in a nearby cellar with 11 other children who survived.

This story is told in pose and is a very quick 227 pages. This book offers so mu More...

A novel written in the form of a prose poem from the point of view of one of the 12 children that survived the Lodz Ghetto during the Holocaust. Sylvia was 4 when she entered the Ghetto and 10 when the Ghetto was liberated. The story is told by Sylvia, and we see the world of the ghetto through her eyes as she grows up. Yellow Star is an amazingly well written book that deals with a difficult subject in an age appropriate way, yet doesn't dilute the horrors of the situation.

Genre: Historical Fiction/ Biography

Summary: This is the story of Syvia Perlmutter, one of only twelve children to survive the Jewish ghetto of Lodz, Poland during the Holocaust of World War II. Syvia was four and a half years old when her family was forced to move into the ghetto, and this book highlights her memories of the following six years of her life.

A) Area of Focus: Style

B) In an introduction by the author, she admits to not wanting to write her aunt's story from a direct, nonfiction a More...

1. I believe that the book would go into the historical fiction genre.
2. The book is about a young girl who is Jewish living in Lodz, Poland in a ghetto trying to stay protected from the Nazis during World War II.
3. (A.)- I felt that the book was written well because it is actually about the author’s aunt. She interviewed her aunt and then she wrote this book. The details in the book are from real life and I found I had a personal connection to the book as I read because I knew reading it that More...