Anna was only nine years old in 1933, too busy with her school work and friends to take much notice of Adolf Hitler's face glaring out of political...
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Jan 29, 2011
Jennifer
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My teacher read this to our class when I was about 10 and the name stuck with me along with a memory of waiting impatiently for the next installment each day. Finally when trying to think of a different book to read to my own kids I asked a bookseller if they knew a book of that name (not having a clue who had written it).
My two boys were absolutely riveted although rather bemused when I sobbed through the more emotional bits (nine and seven year old boys may be slightly lacking i More...
My two boys were absolutely riveted although rather bemused when I sobbed through the more emotional bits (nine and seven year old boys may be slightly lacking i More...
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Nov 25, 2011
Alex
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First published in 1971, I have chosen Judith Kerr’s children’s classic When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit to read for the fourth week of the German Literature Month challenge. Kerr was born in Berlin in 1923. Her family chose to flee Germany just before the Nazis came to power because her father, Alfred Kerr, a well-known writer, had openly criticized this regime. When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit is Kerr’s autobiographical novel about their flight.
The book begins just before the March 1933 More...
The book begins just before the March 1933 More...
Aug 01, 2011
This semi-autobiographical novel tells the story of Anna and her family’s flight from soon-to-be-Nazi-controlled Germany in 1933. Anna’s father is a famous author and is of Jewish descent. He knows that as soon as the Nazis come to power, which they will inevitably do, he will be arrested and so he leaves Germany for neutral Switzerland with Anna, her mother and her brother Max following on a few weeks later. They live in Switzerland for about a year but then have to move to France, and ultim
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Jan 09, 2012
Chandler
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Funny, to have a title that has the words “Pink” and “Rabbit” and it ends up having to do with the Nazis. Just one little plush rabbit, which is light-pink and worn out, had to do when Hitler had began his reign over Germany and the genocide of the Jews. This story’s title was given the name When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit by Judith Kerr. This story focuses on the lives of Anna’s family; or more specifically, Anna. In the story, it is all about her and her Jewish family trying to escape the Nazis,
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Dec 20, 2011
Abby
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Think it all through.
The thought process of a writer is amazing. In the book Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit Anna’s dad is an amazing writer. In his city he writes for the newspaper. This book takes place in 1933 in Switzerland, Germany, and a few other places along their journey. Life has its challenges, and some are greater than others, you need to accept others and they way they deal with life.
This book was a good book because it had great suspense. I always wanted to read more. More...
The thought process of a writer is amazing. In the book Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit Anna’s dad is an amazing writer. In his city he writes for the newspaper. This book takes place in 1933 in Switzerland, Germany, and a few other places along their journey. Life has its challenges, and some are greater than others, you need to accept others and they way they deal with life.
This book was a good book because it had great suspense. I always wanted to read more. More...
Apr 01, 2011
Secret Bookshelf
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When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit is a book for kids and teenagers. I know that many friends of mine had to read it in school but for some reason, I never had to. Nevertheless, I always thought that it is an important novel that I should have read. Thus, last year, I bought it but then forgot about it again. Last week, when I was in bed sick with the flu, I was going through the books in my shelf I have not read yet and there it was and grabbed my attention. I started reading it in the morning and r
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Jan 07, 2011
Fiona
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having randomly picked up this book in registration at school, expecting it not to be great, after all it was in an english classroom and hadn't been studied at my school since 1995. i was very plesantly suprised to find that i very soon became addicted to this delightful story. instead of egarly waiting for my friends to come to regi so i could talk to them, i found my self cursing when they walked in the door, as it meant i had to stop reading. i'm a person that adores reading, however recentl
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Nov 28, 2010
Bookguide
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This book is aimed at pre-teens / early secondary school level, but I thoroughly enjoyed it, and possibly empathised more with the adults, particularly the mother, than I might have done if I'd read it as a child.
This is one of those stories rarely told about the period preceding WWII; the everyday difficulties of a Jewish family who left Germany before Hitler came to power. Anna and Max's parents shielded them from the fear of what they suspected was going to happen, so even the fact More...
This is one of those stories rarely told about the period preceding WWII; the everyday difficulties of a Jewish family who left Germany before Hitler came to power. Anna and Max's parents shielded them from the fear of what they suspected was going to happen, so even the fact More...
Aug 07, 2011
Debbie
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This is the latest in my survey of young adult books about the Holocaust. With that aim in mind, I rated the book with just two stars. It mentions some of the things going on in Nazi Germany, including the election of Hitler, the book burning, and the increased control over the press, but this book is more about a young girl (9-11 years old, as it covers several years) who is adjusting to being a refugee.
She moves between several countries, has to make new friends, adjust to new schoo More...
She moves between several countries, has to make new friends, adjust to new schoo More...
Nov 04, 2009
Cammie
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This story is about a little Jewish girl, Anna and her family who lives in Berlin, Germany. It started a while before Hitler won the elections. The day started when an police officer alerted Anna's father that they were going to revoke his passport. He leaves for Switzerland until the elections. At first, the remainder of the family would leave the day after the elections to see if Hitler would win but then decided to leave the day before just in case if Hitler won. [Later, they find out that it
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Jan 06, 2012
Laura
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When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit is a story of a young girl named Anna. This book is about her trails from one country to another while her family tries to flee from the Nazis that are steadily taking over Germany. The story is from Anna's point of view so she really had no idea what is going on. All she knows it that her family is not safe in Germany and has to get out. She has some idea of how bad the Nazis are but has no clue what they are capable of. She has difficulties leaving her friends but
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Feb 14, 2011
Jay
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Given that Kerr wrote this about her own experiences as a young Jewish girl fleeing Germany in 1933, it's not surprising that this tale rang so true. While some parts are really only skimmed over, such as who Hitler was and why the family had to leave Germany in the first place, these were probably not the most important problems for a young child at the time. This is also somewhat different from other WWII novels/memoirs. This family escapes, and it's not the war that effects Anna so much as co
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Dec 13, 2010
Sarah
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Very nice re-read. I had remembered liking this book a lot as a child, while remembering almost no details from it. Turns out I also had it mixed up with another Holocaust-refugee children's book, as a fragment I *did* remember failed to appear by the final page. Thanks to the magic of the interwebs, I tracked down the other book's title, and thanks to the glory of PINES, a copy is on its way to me. Another important nugget: I discovered that Pink Rabbit author Judith Kerr was the mother of Matthew Kneale
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Apr 25, 2010
Barbara
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Really liked it. A mainly autobiographical story. A well-written, sort of quiet book that is not so much about World War II politics or the first-hand witnessing of atrocities (none of the latter), but about a secular, Jewish family that flees Berlin in 1933, goes on to Switzerland, then settles in Paris for a few years, told from the point of view of a ten (to twelve) years-old girl. The story continues in a second and third book.
I think it's a good "entry" book about W More...
I think it's a good "entry" book about W More...
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Oct 17, 2009
Ms Anderson
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This was a pretty good book. The chapters were a little disjointed due to the amount of time that passes, sort of along the lines of Mowat's The Dog Who Wouldn't Be. The ending is incredibly abrupt, as if the author just lopped off whatever ending she had in mind...and then I looked and found out there's two more books that go with it. Memo to self: read those. The book has good description, and I like how the main character (well, the author, actually, since this story is based on the author's
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Jun 01, 2011
Leigh
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One of the most wonderful books I have ever read....written for youth and young adults, this is the story of young Anna and her brother Max and what happens to their family when they suddenly have to leave their home in Berlin in 1934 when Hitler comes to power. Their family is Jewish and their father is a famous writer and journalist who openly speaks out against Hitler and the Nazis in his writings, putting his family in danger. The family escapes to Switzerland, and then later to Paris. T
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Sep 20, 2011
Rachel
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Beautiful story. This is my second time reading this book but, as I was 9 years old when I last read it, I thought I'd give it a second reading. It's written from the author's perspective and relays what her life was like when her Jewish family ran from the Nazis. It does that very very well. The author at the time was around 10 years old, so you get the tale from a child's point of view which is, I must add, a truly novel experience. The world seems so innocent and even money problems don't wor
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Feb 26, 2010
Abigailann
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It's been a long time since I last read this book, so I was particularly looking forward to another look at it. So when the book arrived in the post (just as I was about to finish my current book) I was very excited.
I'd forgotten the charm of the book and the way in which it was written from a child's point of view. I'd forgotten the way in which it explores the effects of war and becoming a refugee without going into the nitty-gritty political and battles of WW2. In short I re More...
Jun 03, 2010
JabBeRwoCkY
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Kerr writes of the Nazi occupation from the point of view of a refugee child, so it's not terribly surprising that many of the events in Germany at the time are entirely absent in the book (most notably Kristallnacht); even the concentration camps only get one mention. While the shadow of Hitler hangs over their existence, When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit is more about the privations of refugeeism, the challenge of fitting in among a new culture, and other things that seem (rightly so, perhaps) far
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Jun 21, 2011
jazz-ee2
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Listened to this as an audio book. The story of a Jewish family caught up in events leading up to and during the second world war. This is based on the true experiences of the author as a young girl, and the story is narrated through the young girl.
Somehow I thought I would like it better than I did. I enjoyed the tales of school and naive observances of events, however for me there was just something about it that didn't hold my attention. Maybe it was the speakers voice (which wa More...
Somehow I thought I would like it better than I did. I enjoyed the tales of school and naive observances of events, however for me there was just something about it that didn't hold my attention. Maybe it was the speakers voice (which wa More...
Apr 13, 2010
Katri
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One of the favourite books of my childhood. I used to reread this obsessively, though it's been a long time since I last read it. But I found it a very touching and captivating story of how a child experienced having to flee from country to country after Hitler rose to power in Germany and then also began to overpower other countries. It didn't encumber the storytelling with the sort of historical detail that would have been tiresome to a child, but still gave me a vivid image of what it was lik
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Dec 17, 2011
Fiona
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I wish I’d read this book when I was a child, not that I enjoyed it any less for reading it as an adult. In fact, possibly I enjoyed it more because of course I know more about the historical background. However, I wish I’d had the experience of reading this when I was younger. Sometimes I would like to go back in time and introduce myself to all the books I’ve only got around to discovering in my twenties.
When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit is told from the point of view of Anna and so th More...
When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit is told from the point of view of Anna and so th More...
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Jul 12, 2009
Rhonda
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The title of the book is a little misleading. I expected more about the atrocities of the beginning of WWII, but it is more about how a family has to leave their home and adjust to new surroundings. I think that it might be good for students who are learning English as a second language or for students who have to move from school to school. They would probably relate to the feelings discussed in the book about not belonging any place but discover that as long as they have their family, they
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Apr 08, 2008
Rebecca
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Anna did not really think of herself as Jewish as she lived in Berlin. She was just a German girl. That is, until the Nazis came into power, and her father’s writing was no longer acceptable, merely because he was Jewish. So her family left Germany for Switzerland, and began a life which Anna discovered was called that of a “refugee”. We see the way her life changed from what she had always known in first in Switzerland, then France, and finally in England. Her experiences, based on the aut
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Apr 01, 2008
Robert
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Judith Kerr, When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit (Putnam, 1971)
When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit, which from the back cover seems to have won every major kidlit award and had some invented just for it when it was first released in 1971, is a pretty darned good book, to be sure, but I have to say, it's a mite slow getting on its feet. I can't remember the last time I spent two months reading a kids' book, and I spent the bulk of that trying to struggle through the first thirty or so pages. Once More...
When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit, which from the back cover seems to have won every major kidlit award and had some invented just for it when it was first released in 1971, is a pretty darned good book, to be sure, but I have to say, it's a mite slow getting on its feet. I can't remember the last time I spent two months reading a kids' book, and I spent the bulk of that trying to struggle through the first thirty or so pages. Once More...
Jan 23, 2012
Suzy
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I wouldn't have given it this title which makes it sound more juvenile then it actually is and also makes it sound more Hitler based too which it is not. I also thought it would be more about the Holocaust but when I read the back cover after having read the whole book I thought well that really is what it says it is so I can't complain. It was a cute read almost at times reminding me of Anne of Green Gables or a classic such as that. At times it became a little repetitive but at times it was
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Aug 01, 2010
Debbie (Readerbuzz)
rated it:
A 1001 CBYMRBYGU. Anna has to leave Germany with her family to flee the Nazis. First the family goes to Switzerland, then to Paris, and finally to England. Anna’s father has great difficulty finding work as a writer so the family must make many sacrifices, including learning new languages and having to do most of the household work themselves.
The most interesting part of this book came when I learned it was based on the author’s own life. It felt very true.
The most interesting part of this book came when I learned it was based on the author’s own life. It felt very true.
Jan 21, 2009
Merritt
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This was a really sweet book about a ten year old girl fleeing Hitler just as he comes to power. Not so much about Hitler as it is a sketch of a little girl's refugee life. Very sweet and innocent and a fun read.
One thing I really enjoyed was that the little girl is desperate to be famous, but she thinks that in order to be famous you have to have a "difficult childhood." She loves her refugee life in new countries so much she doesn't think she is having one!
One thing I really enjoyed was that the little girl is desperate to be famous, but she thinks that in order to be famous you have to have a "difficult childhood." She loves her refugee life in new countries so much she doesn't think she is having one!
Dec 17, 2010
Autumn
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Nicely written book that is a great introduction to World War II for children. It has a lighter tone than the title may suggest (which Anna and her brother are able to make into a joke and laugh at). Fascinating look at a family who leaves Germany days before Hitler's election. The author's father was a famous drama critic who, since he was Jewish, knew things would be bad. Fantastic and genuinely real descriptions of the feelings and thoughts of Anna and her family as they make their home in ne
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Feb 13, 2011
Resident Optimist
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This story was about a family who had to move out of their home country because of Nazi opposition and threats. The father is a journalist whose writing is unappreciated by Nazi poloticals, so they are all forced to flee. The father goes ahead and then the family follow. The story then goes on to tell us about how the family cope in a new place with no family or relatives to surround themselves with. I'd say this is something for Anne Frank fans.
Personally, I didn't really like this More...
Personally, I didn't really like this More...
