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Someone Named Eva

4.2 of 5 stars 4.20 · rating details · 2,694 ratings · 479 reviews

A gripping tale of one girl’s struggle against the Nazis.

�Remember who you are, Milada.” Milada’s grandmother says these words on the night the Nazi soldiers come to their home in Czechoslovakia. But what do they mean? She is Milada, who lives with her mama and papa, her brother and sister, and her beloved Babichka. Milada with the sun-kissed hair, eleven years old, fastes...more

Paperback, 208 pages

Published June 15th 2009 by Sandpiper (first published January 1st 2007)

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Jan 30, 2013 KayLee J. rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I currently finished Someone Named Eva by Joan M. Wolf. This review is only about the theme of the story,which I like to describe by picking words to describe the theme. I think the the two words that best state the theme of the book are hope & bravery. The first is bravery because Milada was taken away from her family to go to a harsh German boarding school to learn German ways,the language, and life. As well as getting a new name,Eva. It was hard for her since she was Czech and hated the G...more

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Aug 24, 2007 Betsy rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Don't blink or you'll miss it. The arrival of a noteworthy work of historical fiction for kids tends to work one of two ways. Either the marketing machine behind the book hits bookstores and libraries full-force, cramming said book down everyone's throats until they yield and make it a bestseller/award winner... or nothing happens at all. The book slips onto shelves without so much as a squeak, never insisting that anyone go out of their way to find it. "Someone Named Eva" belongs firmly in the...more Don't blink or you'll miss it. The arrival of a noteworthy work of historical fiction for kids tends to work one of two ways. Either the marketing machine behind the book hits bookstores and libraries full-force, cramming said book down everyone's throats until they yield and make it a bestseller/award winner... or nothing happens at all. The book slips onto shelves without so much as a squeak, never insisting that anyone go out of their way to find it. "Someone Named Eva" belongs firmly in the latter camp. It's small and subtle and extraordinarily good. The kind of WWII children's fiction other authors should look to emulate, given the chance.

Eleven-year-old Milada remembers the night. The night when there was pounding on the door and Nazis in her Czechoslovakian home. The night when her grandmother pressed a garnet pin into her hand and told her to never forget who she was. But since that time Milada had a difficult time keeping that promise. Having been forcibly removed from her family and taken to a bizarre Nazi-run girl's school, Milada quickly learns the reason for her presence in the Lebensborn center; her shiny golden hair and bright blue eyes. Renamed Eva, Milada is part of a system intent upon turning her into a "good" German citizen. The kind of place where she can be taught the evils of the Jews, the glory of Hitler, and the joys of being adopted into a real German family's home. Based on events following the destruction of Lidice, Czechoslovakia, author Joan Wolf tells of the real Lebensborn center in Poland, the crimes it committed against an untold number of girls during WWII, and what it takes to stay true to your heritage.

Wolf is also very good at displaying the effectiveness of intense psychological brainwashing. When Milada says that, "it was hard to remember that I wasn't a Nazi, that I didn't want to be the Aryan ideal, that I hated Germany," you understand why she says this. The psychological damage inflicted on these girls must have been intense. Little wonder then that, as Wolf mentions in her Author's Note, "Very little has been written in English about the Lebensborn centers that housed kidnapped children, part of which may be due to the fact that so few children were found after the war." What's more, Wolf knows how to manipulate her reader so that we find ourselves in the same position as Milada. When she realizes with a shock that she can't remember her old name, I challenge you to remember it yourself. It's gone and as she wracks her memory, we wrack our own. Such a clever technique.

My mind makes me pair books together. That's just how it works. And at some point, mid-way through a read of "Someone Named Eva", I realized that this book should be paired alongside The Night of the Burning: Devorah's Story by Linda Press Wulf. Both take place during WWII, and they deal with very different adoption journeys. You could create an entire reading unit out of these two books alone. It's almost as if they were made for one another, so perfectly to they complement and contrast one another's themes. Before you do that, however, you must read this book first. It's Joan M. Wolf's first book for children, and I want it to get a proper amount of attention. Books like this one don't write themselves. For a good jolt of historical fiction to the brain, "Someone Named Eva" may well be one of the smartest books of the year.(less)

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Nov 29, 2012 Nayna P. rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I am currently reading Someone Named Eva by Joan M. Wolf. I am not that far into the book, so there isn't much to tell you about the story part of it, but I'll try my best. This book was a recommendation by Mrs. Foley, its genre is historical fiction, it is placed in the time when the Nazis ruled. Milda is Jewish, and the day after her birthday the Nazis come. They separate the men and women of the village and take the men away. The women are taken into a gymnasium, wondering where the men of th...more

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Mar 05, 2008 Christina rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: kid-books

I heard so many good things about this book, and I wanted to really love it. I liked it. It was a compelling, personal narrative about a little known atrocity perpetrated against a village in Czechoslovakia. I would give it more like 3.5 stars.
Milada is taken from her family because is looks like the aryan ideal. Most of the other women and girls her age are sent to a work camp for the duration of the war, but Milada is sent for Germanification education in Poland. She is eventually adopted by a...more

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Feb 06, 2012 Kaitlin rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Hitler’s Youth was created by Hitler and many children were forced to attend, a young person like Milada was forced. She was taken from her family by the Nazi's and sent to join. The story told in first person by Milada showed what a Hitler's youth program was like. Through this sad but captivating book, Milada holds on to her old self and learns many things concerning the German culture. The plot is not that credible it is a Historical fiction book, that was based on Hitler's youth. Milada is...more

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Apr 26, 2013 Noelle rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

This book gave me a lot of insight into a little known part of World War II. It was very inspiring, and I appreciate that it was based on fact, that they really kidnapped children and brainwashed them into believing they were something they really weren't. Awesome book; totally recommend it for anyone!

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Jan 07, 2009 Sara rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: young-adult, 2009, historical-fiction

4, possibly 4.5 stars. Though this book is short, it definitely makes an impact. The cover is what made me pick it up at the library, but the story is extremely well written and fascinating: Milada, a young Czech girl, is taken in 1942 by the Nazis and, because of her Aryan features, sent to a "reeducation camp" training her how to be a good German girl so she can be adopted into a German family and later become a German wife and mother. The characters in here are all fictional, but (as the auth...more

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Dec 04, 2012 Rui Wen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

"Someone Named Eva", by Joan M. Wolf is a book about a girl's life through World War II in Germany. The girl's name is Milada, she lives in Lidice, Czechoslovakia during the years Hitler and the Nazis were taking over Germany. Milada gets separated from her family, because of her physical features, she looks like a perfect German girl. She gets pulled apart from her family, and goes to a camp in Poland, where Jewish girls learn to be German girls. Milada gets a new name, Eva. There the camp is...more

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Apr 25, 2012 Laura rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: holocaust

I couldn't put this book down. It is a fictionalized account of a topic I had previously known nothing about--the kidnapping of Eastern European children (e.g., Polish, Czech, etc.) by Nazis to be placed first in Lebensborn centers and later to be adopted as "Aryan" children into German families.

This is a book geared for the juvenile audience. While there is very little in the book that details the horrors of the Holocaust, I think the topic itself would probably be incredibly terrifying to chil...more

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Apr 13, 2012 Christina rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This historical fiction book is about how Non-Jewish people were treated by Hitler and the Nazis. Hitler wanted the Germans to be dominant over other races and cultures. The book focuses on Milada, because she was kidnapped by the Nazis and put in a German training camp because she had blone hair, blue eyes, and had the perfect facial features. Milada was given a new name, and was to learn the German language. She also had to learn how to be part of the Aryan Race, which would lead her to be a p...more

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Apr 09, 2012 Lindsay Waddell rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: childrens-young-adult

I had heard great things about this book from my students. It was a Reading Bowl book last year and was by far a favorite. I finally had to see for myself what all the rage was about. The story takes place during World War II and tells the tale of Milada, a Czechoslavakian girl that is taken from her home in Lidice. Because of her blond hair, blue eyes and perfectly-sized nose, she is trained in a german "education center" for 2 years, renamed Eva and then adopted by a German family. This was a...more

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Jan 06, 2012 05meganb rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I think it's a sad book, Milada's been gone for three years being called Eva by Germans. The problem in the story is that one day Nazis gathered up everyone in her town and separated the boys from girls. The girls went to a gym while the Nazis looked at them to see if the had blond hair and light colored eyes. Milada has both of them so she was taken to a camp where other girls from Poland were. They had to learn German and the ways they think and act. She really wants the war to end and for her...more

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Jul 30, 2011 Monica! rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: a-damn-dim-candle, reasonably-realistic, your-reality-alarms-me, read-in-2011, puberty-is-overrated-anyway, winning-is-for-winners

So guys. I have added a new item to my list of Things That Would Be Really, Really Terrifying To Have Happen To You When You’re Eleven, namely “Be stolen from your family because you have blonde hair and blue eyes, and ‘Germanized’ in an abusive Polish school so that you are a perfect little Nazi child and can be adopted by a German mutter and vater and, eventually, birth the children of the new Aryan nation.” Because between the brainwashing, and the constant fear that you won’t measure up and...more So guys. I have added a new item to my list of Things That Would Be Really, Really Terrifying To Have Happen To You When You’re Eleven, namely “Be stolen from your family because you have blonde hair and blue eyes, and ‘Germanized’ in an abusive Polish school so that you are a perfect little Nazi child and can be adopted by a German mutter and vater and, eventually, birth the children of the new Aryan nation.” Because between the brainwashing, and the constant fear that you won’t measure up and will be sent away and killed, and the realization that even if you ever do find your family again, you won’t be able to communicate with them, because you have forgotten every word of your former language, and what did they look like, again? ... It would pretty much be a nightmare.

Wolf effectively takes us with Eva as she slowly loses memories of her former life. And, as the reader, you realize you’re forgetting right along with Eva. “She doesn’t remember her Grandma’s name? Wait, what was her Grandma’s name? She doesn’t remember her own name?! It was… it was… how do I not know this?! She said it, like, fifty times earlier in the book!!” Very disconcerting.

Also disconcerting is Eva’s realization that she is becoming something Other – there’s a moment in the middle of the book when an elderly Polish woman spits in Eva’s face and begins shrieking about evil little Nazi girls. Eva is horrified, because she’s not a Nazi. And she says this, to Gerde and Franziska and Fräulein Krüger, standing in front of a poster of the Führer, dressed in her League of German Girls uniform, with her blonde hair coiled up in braids and her blue eyes filled with tears and a swastika at her throat, and they just look at her, because yes, yes she is.

Really, the only bad thing I can say about this book is the cover, my God, what were they thinking? This book was not written in 1952, people! The cover should not feature a washed-out watercolor of a crazy-eyed child! For those of you who do not shallowly judge a book by what it looks like initially, however, it should be fine.(less)

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May 03, 2011 Madison added it · review of another edition

Someone named Eva was a great read about a young girl who lost her family during the Holocaust. In some parts of the story it had me stop and think about how that felt and what it looked like to be there in Milada's situation. Also at some points I thought ‘’wow Milada’s pretty stupid for doing that’’. What I don’t understand is why Hitler would put non Jewish people in the concentration camps. The end of the story was summed up good though Milada reunited with her mother but her father, brother...more

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Oct 27, 2010 Kristin rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2010

I have read numerous books about the Holocaust. Generally, the young adult books I've read are about Jewish survivors. Someone Named Eva is a book about a Catholic survivor. Malida is a Catholic Czech living in the village of Lidice. Czechoslovakia was under Nazi reign and assigned a "protector", Reinhard Heydrich. At the end of May, 1942 resistance fighters attempted to assassinate Heydrich. Their attempt was successfully in that Heydrich died of wounds he received a few days after the attempt...more

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Mar 21, 2010 El rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 21st-centurylit, eastern-central-european-lit, holocaust, i-hate-ya

A little reality back-story for those of you who don't know the history of Lidice in the Czech Republic. By the late Thirties, when it was still Czechoslovakia, Hitler was in control of the country. He put his favorite wing-man, Reinhard Heydrich, in charge of Czechoslovakia, then called the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia under Nazi rule; he was referred to by locals as the "butcher of Prague". Not a nice man, this one. Some resistance fighters swooped in to try to assassinate Heydrich who...more A little reality back-story for those of you who don't know the history of Lidice in the Czech Republic. By the late Thirties, when it was still Czechoslovakia, Hitler was in control of the country. He put his favorite wing-man, Reinhard Heydrich, in charge of Czechoslovakia, then called the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia under Nazi rule; he was referred to by locals as the "butcher of Prague". Not a nice man, this one. Some resistance fighters swooped in to try to assassinate Heydrich who died about a week later from his injuries. This, of course, angered Hitler. His solution was to destroy any village that was found to have assisted the resistance fighters in any way. Lidice happened to be one such village. The retaliation Hitler imposed on them was to shoot any man over the age of 16 by firing squad, put the women in concentration camps, remove any children and place them in German homes in an attempt to Germanize them (thus removing their Czech ancestry), and destroy the entire village.

This children's fiction book is about this. Milada is taken from her family and trained to be a "perfect" German, which includes having her name changed to an appropriate German name - Eva. She tries to retain her memories of her family alive, but by the time she is adopted by a German family she finds it's harder each day to remember what happened before she was taken away. Her adopted father is a high-ranking Nazi officer who works in the Ravensbruck concentration camp not far from their home. Eva comments on the smell in the air, but does not understand until later that the smell is from the actual concentration camp and that it is the smell of the executed.

Quite a powerful children's fiction book, and well worth the read. It's written with children in mind, obviously, but the story itself is an important one, if one can stomach it. Because it is based on a true story, it's heartbreaking and nauseating what this little girl went through. It's a fictitious story, but as the author explains in the Afterword, she encountered people whose own real stories mirrored the one she had written about Eva.(less)

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Jan 19, 2010 Erin rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is a youth fiction book, but we read it outloud as we traveled to Las Vegas for Christmas. It tells a story based on actual events in Czechoslovakia during World War II, that I had never known about. The Nazis destroyed the small city of Lidice as revenge for an assassination of a Nazi leader by a group of rebels believed to be from Lidice. They lined up and killed every man and boy, and sent all of the women and most of the children to work camps where the majority of them died of starvati...more

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Oct 03, 2009 Barbara Triggs rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: wide-reading-ci-546, level-young-adult, topic-holocaust, identity, genre-historical-fiction

A young girl is forced to go with her family from their home in Czechoslovakia to a holding area to await deportation to concentration and work camps. Milada is separated from her family and sent to a center for retraining as a German girl. She is renamed Eve and "forced: to abandon all of her former culture and identity to become the bright future of the aryan nation. She is eventually adopted by high ranking Nazi family, who she grows to love. She never forgets who she is, although at times st...more

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Sep 11, 2009 84-The_enlightment_of_Doctor_Grace_part5_Jesus added it · review of another edition

Someone Named Eva by Joan M. Wolf is a historical fiction based in Europe during WWII. The story starts out in Czechoslovokia where Milada and her best friend Terezie are planning her birthday party. Milada's family doesn't have a lot of resources because of the war, but they manage to get her gifts and even a cake. Everything is good in life. But Nazi soldiers show up and tell them they have to leave. Milada's father and brother along with all the other village men are separated from the women...more Someone Named Eva by Joan M. Wolf is a historical fiction based in Europe during WWII. The story starts out in Czechoslovokia where Milada and her best friend Terezie are planning her birthday party. Milada's family doesn't have a lot of resources because of the war, but they manage to get her gifts and even a cake. Everything is good in life. But Nazi soldiers show up and tell them they have to leave. Milada's father and brother along with all the other village men are separated from the women and children. Everyone else is taken to a building where doctors select children and look at them. Milada is selected, and she soon realizes all the chosen children have blond hair and blue eyes. Her grandmother gives her a star pin and tells her to never forget who she is. Milada and some other children are taken away to a school where they have pictures of Hitler everywhere. Everyone must speak German and wear the Nazi symbol. Milada is renamed Eva, and she is told the allies killed her family in an air raid. At first it is easy to remember the truth, but as time passes Milada starts to forget things of her old life. She tries to fulfill the promise she made to her grandmother but as each day passes her memory seems to slip out the window like a silent balloon without any warning.
This book was good. Even though it was fiction a lot of the events really happened. Children who fit the "Aryan look" were taken from there families and raised as Nazis. They were often adopted into Nazi homes, and many of them lost the rest of their family to concentration camps. It was very tragic for the children and even the families after they were reunited. Many children could not remember their mothers or fathers, so being taken away from their Nazi family was like taking them away from all the family they had ever known. Many times they spoke only German while their families spoke another language. This book makes you realize that everyone in the war had a side in the story and everyone suffered.
(less)

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Jul 21, 2009 kelley rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: historical fiction

Recommended to kelley by: my daughter

Shelves: 2009

This book takes place in WWII. It is based on actual events although the characters are fictional. In 1942 there was a Czech uprising. One of Hitler’s top men was killed. It was rumored that the uprising began in the small town of Lidice, Czechoslovakia (Population around 500). Hitler retaliates by striking the village in the night. Soldiers go to each home, evicting residents and taking them prisoner. The men and boys are taken out to a farm and executed. The women are taken to a school. Most e...more

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Jul 03, 2009 Karin rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 1940s, 2010-caudill-nominees, world-war-2, historical-fiction, juvenile-fiction, borrowed-from-the-library

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Milada and her family are torn apart by the Nazis during WWII in Czechoslovakia. Because of her Aryan looks (blonde hair, blue eyes), Milada is taken to a Lebensborn – a special school for children with these features that trains them to be German citizens of the Third Reich. Although Milada has plenty to eat in the Lebensborn, she misses her family and friends. Some of the teachers are cruel and all of the girls are forced to give up their names, their pasts, and their native languages. When th...more Milada and her family are torn apart by the Nazis during WWII in Czechoslovakia. Because of her Aryan looks (blonde hair, blue eyes), Milada is taken to a Lebensborn – a special school for children with these features that trains them to be German citizens of the Third Reich. Although Milada has plenty to eat in the Lebensborn, she misses her family and friends. Some of the teachers are cruel and all of the girls are forced to give up their names, their pasts, and their native languages. When they are judged to be acceptable, the girls are adopted into German families. Milada, now Eva, is placed with the Werner family – Herr Werner, her new father (vater) is a prominent member of the Nazi party. Eva comes to love her new sister Elsbeth, and brother, Peter, and mother, but desperately clings to the memories she has of her real family and the person she used to be. When the war ends, people from the Red Cross reunite Eva/Milada with her mother – her only surviving family member.

The reality of what WWII and being taken from one’s family and repatriated to be one of the enemy is like is something that would truly horrify children (and adults). Since Joan Wolf has written a book for children (grades 4 – 7), she tells Eva/Milada’s story with enough details to pique readers’ curiosity without scaring (or scarring) them for life. By being taken to the Lebensborn, Milada was spared many of the privations and horrors of the work and/or concentration camps – compared to some people (like many Jews) she had it easy. She did, however, lose most of her family and her best friend to the war. As an adult reading this, I wanted to know more about the Lebensborn and what they were really like (and how they tied into Hitler’s grand plans for Germany), and I wanted Eva’s story to be more heart-breaking, grittier. It ends on a positive note, with Milada and her mother beginning to heal, beginning to know one another again and hoping – together – that they’ll one day be reunited with another family member (Anechka). The story loses some of its power to impress and affect readers by leaving out the Bad Stuff, glossing over details, and fast-forwarding to a time when everything is ok. Realistically, things were not really ok for most people immediately after the war. Although Milada survives the war, she’s not really memorable enough to stick around long in readers’ heads.

The cover, incidentally, does nothing for this book. The girl on the front - Eva/Milada - looks possessed. It's not appealing, and I don't think anyone is going to look at the jacket and say, "Hey, that looks good!"(less)

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Mar 10, 2012 Laura rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Someone Named Eva tells the story of a young Czechoslovakian girl named Milada who is torn from her life, her family, and from everything she knows because of Hitler's quest for a perfect world.
She lives in the small village of Lidice, and although the war is raging through Europe, their town hasn't really been affected, other than food and ration shortages. This unusual peace is shattered in an instant, when the Nazi's come to Lidice and evict everyone from their homes in a single night. Milad...more Someone Named Eva tells the story of a young Czechoslovakian girl named Milada who is torn from her life, her family, and from everything she knows because of Hitler's quest for a perfect world.
She lives in the small village of Lidice, and although the war is raging through Europe, their town hasn't really been affected, other than food and ration shortages. This unusual peace is shattered in an instant, when the Nazi's come to Lidice and evict everyone from their homes in a single night. Milada's family is separated, with her father and older brother going one way and her mother, little sister, grandmother and she herself go another. Milada and the women from her family are held with all the rest of the females from Lidice in building for many days. In this new place, Milada and several other children are selected because of their 'Aryan' features. They are taken from their families, and in some cases, never see them again.
Milada and the other girls are taken to a place where they are forced to live as German girls, learn German, and are beaten if they don't follow orders. Milada is renamed Eva, and she has to work really hard to remember her old life, her family, even her real name. Milada (Eva) is adopted when she seems German enough by a family near Berlin, and has to become a part of this new family. Vater, Mutter, Elsbeth and Peter accept her, and Milada (Eva) has to work hard to accept them and this new life. Milada has almost entirely forgotten her old life, but she starts to remember little things.
Some themes that emerge from this story are that although humans often do horrible things, they do good things too.
There are some stereotypes about the Jewish people in this book, but they are not too bad, and they are not in the book too often.
This book is definitely historically accurate, because the author did a lot of research. Her research is shown in the back of the book.
All in all, Joan M. Wolf has crafted a masterpiece that people of many ages can relate to and understand. The way Joan M. Wolf tells Milada's story makes the entire thing seem real. She makes Milada likeable and relatable enough that her story is gripping when things are tense and sad when things take a turn for the worse. Milada is truly an amazing character, and Joan M. Wolf is truly an amazing author. (less)

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Apr 02, 2011 Michelle Harclerode rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: children-s-novels, sunshine-state-young-readers-award

Book Trailer link http://www.booktrailersforreaders.com...

An emotional read for students and adults alike. My students connected to this historical fiction the way many do when reading the "Diary of Anne Frank". This 2010 2011 Sunshine State Young Readers Award book made the Grades 3 through 5 list. Definitely takes a mature reader due to content. Spurred a controversy in our school distict. I felt author Joan Wolf handled the holocaust with truth and sensitivity. Many of my older students cl...more

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Oct 22, 2010 Sheri rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Someone Named Eva (Joann M. Wolf)
Historical Fiction. Set in WWII Germany/Czechoslovakia/Poland. Milada is a young Czech girl. She just celebrated her 11th Birthday in May of 1942. Shortly after this celebration her home is invaded by Nazi troops and her family is separated. Her father and brother are taken away, while her sister, mother & grandmother are held a school. Once there the children are separated and inspected. Milada is segregated with other children, she notes the one thing in co...more Someone Named Eva (Joann M. Wolf)
Historical Fiction. Set in WWII Germany/Czechoslovakia/Poland. Milada is a young Czech girl. She just celebrated her 11th Birthday in May of 1942. Shortly after this celebration her home is invaded by Nazi troops and her family is separated. Her father and brother are taken away, while her sister, mother & grandmother are held a school. Once there the children are separated and inspected. Milada is segregated with other children, she notes the one thing in common, they all have blond hair and blue eyes. Soon Milada is put on a bus and taken away, leaving behind her beloved family.

She finds herself in a "training camp". Once there they are taught German and only allowed to speak this "Aryan" language. They are taught about Germany and how to be a "Proper German Woman" to follow in Hitler's plan to create a new Germany. Soon Milada is stripped of her name , identity and past...she is to be called Eva from her on. Yet inside she recalls her grandmothers words before she is take from the Nazi's....those words are: "Always remember who you are, and where you came from". Her grandmother slips her a special star shaped ruby pin, this become the only tie to her past, as she desperately holds on to it over the years.

A touching story of one girls plight to survive the Hitler Regime. I found this well written story to be fascinating, emotional and thought provoking. It tells of the lost small village of Lidice, Czechoslovakia, which was invaded (by Germany Under hitler's command) and ultimately destroyed. Hundreds of people were killed, taken to concentration camps, to die of starvation disease or at the brutal hands of the Nazi troops. But the main story is of the few Lidice children who were take from their home to be molded into what Hitler wanted as the "Perfect German". An emotional and heart felt story, leaving a lasting memory, of the little known village and its people, whom none of which were Jewish (most people relate to WWII and Hitler's reigme, not knowing that other people besides Jewish, were taken and killed). Also included at the end is a website in memorandum of those lives lost in the small but not forgotten town, Lidice Czechoslovakia.

My Daughter did a book report (on Someone Named Eva) and after reading it I was compelled to read (the book) my self. I was not disappointed. And excellent read. I highly recommend to adults as well as young readers.(less)

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Mar 26, 2010 Ian Mchugh rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A lovely children's novel that tells the story of Milada, a young Czech girl, and how the events of World War II impact on her life. Milada and her family are residents of Lidice in Czechoslovakia and on one fateful morning Nazi soldiers arrive in the town. The story that follows sees Milada separated from her family and then 'Aryanised' in a Lebensborn camp in Poland. On completing her 'Nazification', Milada - now renamed the more German sounding "Eva" - is adopted by a high ranking Nazi family...more

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Apr 15, 2011 Allison Daily rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

So far I am really enjoying it. It is a very poignant book about the Nazi regime and it's effect on a family from the Czech Republic.
This book was written for young adults but I LOVED it as an adult. Very educational and so real. I loved it!

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Mar 10, 2010 BJ Rose rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to BJ Rose by: Cheryl TX

Shelves: history-europe, library-books, young-adult, dystopia, spring-challenge

Czech freedom-fighters, rebelling against Hitler's takeover of their country, attempted to assassinate his #1 man in Czechoslovakia. In retaliation, Hitler orders the elimination of a Czech village - men and teen boys are executed, women and girls are placed in concentration camps, and the town is burned, bulldozed, and wiped out of existence. The town was Lidice. All of this is factual - this book itself is fiction based on these facts, and follows the young Milada who is dragged into Hitler's...more

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Feb 20, 2010 Sandy rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: other-diversity, historical-fiction

Wow, what a moving book. I actually found myself wondering why this book wasn't considered for a book award. Though the characters are fictional, they are based on real life individuals who lived through such a horrific, evil time as World War II in Europe.

Ten year old Milada and her best friend Terezie have their birthdays only a month apart; right after Milada has her party, she and Terezie start planning the other. But Terezie never gets to have her party and the reader finds out at the end o...more

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Jan 18, 2013 Marcos F added it · review of another edition

I am currently reading Someone Named Eva. It takes places in the year of 1942. The mane character is taken from her home along with other blond, blue eyed, girls.I think the book is bleak and serious.

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Dec 30, 2009 Marie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Monday at the library they had a new display of nominees for the Beehive Award (similar to Texas' Bluebonnets) so I picked up this book. This is an amazing work, not only because I carried it around with me all day yesterday eager to keep reading at each free moment, but also because it addressed a chapter of history I had not heard before (while fiction, it appears to have been well researched). I had no idea that Hitler's forces had basically kidnapped children from all their occupied areas th...more

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About Joan M. Wolf

Joan M. Wolf's research for SOMEONE NAMED EVA took her to the Czech Republic, where her great-grandmother was born. She lives in Minnesota.

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