Torn from their homeland, two Jewish sisters find refuge in Sweden.
It's the summer of 1939. Two Jewish sisters from Vienna—12-... read full description
It's the summer of 1939. Two Jewish sisters from Vienna—12-... read full description
reviews
Dec 19, 2010
Danielle
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In 1938, Sweden offered to take in 500 Jewish children from Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia. Twelve-year-old Stephie and seven-year-old Nellie Steiner were among those children. Forced to be separated from their parents, Stephie and Nellie were sent to Sweden in hopes that they would be protected from the Nazi invasion. But from the beginning, things don't go as planned. First the girls are separated from each other; Nellie goes to live with warm, loving Auntie Alma while Stephie is sent
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Oct 28, 2010
Joy
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In 1939, Sweden accepted 500 Jewish children as refugees from Nazi Germany. This is a novel about 2 of these children (fictional characters), sisters from Vienna who are sent to live in a remote island off the coast of Goteborg, Sweden. There they are separated to stay with 2 different families. The oldest, who is 12, has difficulties adjusting to a new language, missing her parents, new customs, new kids (including some who bully her), nightmare memories of Nazis terrorizing her family and comm
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Jul 28, 2010
Beth
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In 1939 two sisters, Stephie and Nellie, are sent to Sweden to avoid persecution by the Nazis. Stephie, the older sister, struggles to keep her Austrian identity while trying to assimilate to Swedish life. Stephie and Nellie are boarded in separate houses, but remain close enough to see each other daily. Both girls struggle communicating with others and making friends. Stephie desperately misses her parents, while Nellie adapts easier to her new family and way of life. Stephie and her foste
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Jun 28, 2010
Ningerbil
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A touching book. Two sisters, Stephie, 12, and Nellie, 7, are sent to Sweden as part of a children's refugee program to escape the Nazi occupation and repression in Austria. Nellie adapts to her family quickly, embracing the language and her adopted parents. Stephie struggles with trying to fit in, while maintaining her Jewish and Austrian identity. Stephie also has an uneasy relationship with her strict adoptive mother, whom she calls Aunt Marta, as well as problems with the school bully. Above
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Jul 27, 2010
Nicole
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This book made me feel intensely lonely. I'm not 100% sure of all the reasons why.
It's a fairly short YA novel about two Jewish girls who are sent to foster families in Sweden during WWII. I chose the book because it was about Jews in Sweden - a very small population in a place where I have roots (and sometimes have fantasies of emigrating). Apparently, the author herself is a Jewish Swede.
I definitely identified with the protagonist. She's the older sister. She doesn't More...
It's a fairly short YA novel about two Jewish girls who are sent to foster families in Sweden during WWII. I chose the book because it was about Jews in Sweden - a very small population in a place where I have roots (and sometimes have fantasies of emigrating). Apparently, the author herself is a Jewish Swede.
I definitely identified with the protagonist. She's the older sister. She doesn't More...
Mar 21, 2011
May
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this book is my favorite book...i gave sympathy to the 2 sisters who survive without their parents...their parents were not dead but they couldn't flee away from the country but the kids had been fled and they're waiting for their parents to flee to America. i like the scene when the older girl couldn't write a letter to her mom about how she and her little sister want to be with the parents because she worries that her parents would be sad and feel bad about it...she wants her parents not to wo
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Nov 08, 2010
Elentarien
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Not quite what I expected when I started this, but still quite interesting. A good look at what some of the children had to deal with during the war when they were evacuated to live with strangers.
This one took it from a different view, in that the children were going to Sweden from Germany, not being sent to the US or Canada from England, etc. This one was about the Jewish children being gotten out before the war.
All in all a good book, although I felt it ended a bit abrup More...
This one took it from a different view, in that the children were going to Sweden from Germany, not being sent to the US or Canada from England, etc. This one was about the Jewish children being gotten out before the war.
All in all a good book, although I felt it ended a bit abrup More...
Apr 13, 2010
Malissa
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I liked this book but didn't find myself blown away by it. I think that might have been partly because most books that are about children (or adults) affected my Nazi Germany are much more dramatic with harsher topics. While it's sad, of course, that the girls in this book are displaced from their wealthy, Jewish faith, Vienna lifestyle to a much poorer, strict Christian, Swedish one and that they must adjust to a new language and being separated from their parents, it's mild compared to most bo
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Jul 30, 2010
Pblake
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Twelve-year-old Stephie Steiner and her younger sister Nellie are part of a group sent to Sweden from Austria to escape persecution by the Nazis in 1939. They leave their parents and are sent to live with separate families in a small fishing village on a cold, island. Stephie and Nellie are taken into homes where they are made to feel as if each is part of the family. The girls are able to write to their parents in Vienna where their father is forced to work in a labor camp. Stephie faces bu
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Mar 06, 2010
Amanda
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I read this because A) it won a Batchelder, and I love that award B) it is Swedish. I found it to be a bit tedious. OK, she's miserable and her sister isn't. I get it. So much time was spent building up just how horrible her life is, and how miserable it is, and then it was all fixed in a few chapters at the end. There were some interesting secondary characters who weren't very well developed at all. The Christian-conversion themes were jarring to my liberal American sensibilities, althoug
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Feb 13, 2011
Karen
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Holocaust fiction from the point of view of Stephie, a young girl sent away to Sweden with her little sister Nellie, far from parents trapped in Nazi Germany. Stephie promised her parents that she would protect Nellie, but they are split up in two separate foster homes when they arrive in Sweden. The girls have difficulty adjusting to the new language, new school, new homes and lack of friends in this place, as they await news of their parents' escape. This is a story of courage on a daily bas
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May 27, 2010
Kelly
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The year is 1939, and sisters Stephie and Nellie Steiner have been sent to a small town in Sweden to escape persecution by the Nazis in Vienna. Adjusting to a new place, language, school and foster family is difficult, especially for Stephie, who eagarly awaits word from the girls' parents that their visas to America have been granted. In the meantime, while Nellie seems to fit in right away, Stephie has trouble making friends, and her foster mother's strict and quiet household seems cold and lo
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Mar 10, 2011
Tanja
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What a fabulous book - even though I have to admit that it took me several attempts to finally get past the first 50 pages (don't know why...). But then I was hooked and couldn't put the book down anymore until I had reached the end. I suffered with Stephie and Nellie, two sisters from Vienna who are sent to live with foster families in Sweden in the summer of 1939. I felt their anger, their grief and frustration. The book is very well researched and makes a journey back in time easy for the rea
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Jun 20, 2010
David
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This Batchelder Award winner is the first of 4 books about its main characters, Stephanie, age 12, and Nellie, age 7. These two Jewish sisters are sent, along with nearly 500 others to Sweden from Austria to escape persecution by the Nazis. A Faraway Island follows the life of the girls as they try to adjust to thier new life in a fishing area, and realize they may be separated from their parents for a long time. Stephie has the most trouble adjusting. The story gives us details of a historical
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Jul 22, 2010
Monica
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I really am enjoying and am getting into the book. Once I pick it up very hard to put it down!
This book was so touching. It is about the changes two sisters have to endure when they are placed in foster care to escape the Nazis. They are sent by their parents with the idea that they will be placed together while they wait to be reunited with their parents. Stephie being the oldest has a hard time with the change not to mention she is placed with a not so warm foster mother. Nellie being th More...
This book was so touching. It is about the changes two sisters have to endure when they are placed in foster care to escape the Nazis. They are sent by their parents with the idea that they will be placed together while they wait to be reunited with their parents. Stephie being the oldest has a hard time with the change not to mention she is placed with a not so warm foster mother. Nellie being th More...
Nov 23, 2010
Lewestover
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The impact of being displaced as a young Jewish girl in WWII is movingly depicted in this story. To be twelve is hard enough in most situations; but to be in a land where the language is strange, to have the responsibility of watching over your younger sister (even though you don't live in the same home), and to be placed with a woman who seems harsh and uncaring and then having to deal with the cruelty of those your own age makes life especially hard. I look forward to reading the other three
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Apr 15, 2010
Anne Thomsen
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Maybe I should just pack up and move to Sweden. I love Stieg Larsson, and so far, I love Annika Thor. I am absolutely thrilled that this book is the first of a four-book series. I can't wait to read more about Stephie and Nellie. I cried a lot during this story. I knew what I was getting into however. The set up of two Jewish girls moving from Vienna to Sweden in 1939 away from their parents isn't the most cherry of beginnings. Stephie's life is just so hard, and my heart aches for her. T
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Oct 02, 2009
Rebecca
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Following the invasion of Austria by the Nazis, two young Jewish sisters from Vienna, twelve-year-old Stephie Steiner and her eight-year-old sister, Nellie, are sent away by their parents to safety in Sweden. Their parents hopes the family can reunite soon and travel to a safer country, but shortly after the sisters arrive in Sweden, World War II breaks out in Europe, trapping the two young girls in a strange and foreign country, away from their parents.
The two girls are placed in se More...
The two girls are placed in se More...
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Sep 15, 2010
Beth
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In 1939, sisters Stephie and Nellie are sent from Vienna to Sweden to escape the Nazis. They have to adapt to new homes, a new language, and a totally different lifestyle, made even more complicated by Stephie's harsh foster mother. Stephie's homesickness and her attempts to help her parents ring true in this story based on the author's interviews and research on children who were taken to Sweden at the start of WWII. The girls are forced to adopt Christianity and there is some religious cont
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Mar 06, 2010
Phoebe
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Two Jewish sisters are sent as refugees to a tiny fishing village in Sweden. The younger girl, Nellie, fits in right away, but Stephie has more difficulty and in her utter loneliness and misery walls herself away from the other children. Often quite awkwardly translated and this for me interfered with the story. Despite the poor translation, the sadness of familial separation and the horror of Hitler are well expressed. Winner of the 2010 Batchelder.
Dec 19, 2009
The Library Lady
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Steffi and her little sister are 2 of 500 children allowed to leave Hitler occupied Europe and come to live with foster parents on a tiny island in Sweden. Based on actual accounts by some of those children, this is moving and really involves you in the story. There are 3 more books in this series and my 14 year old and I both hope they will get translated from the Swedish and published here--we want to know what will happen to Steffi!
Apr 06, 2010
Lisa
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A great story for student who know and understand the Holocaust, but aren't ready for all the details that come with something like Devil's Arithemetic. Two girls are sent from Austria to Sweden by their parents. The story focuses on the older girl who has trouble adapting to her new life and understands enought to be worried about when she will see her parents again.
Oct 16, 2011
Betsy
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Sweet story about two girls who are sent from Vienna to Sweden during WWII to live with a host family. They are only supposed to be there 6 months until their parents can get papers and then they can all go to America. It wasn't a book that I couldn't put down, but I did enjoy it. Apparently there are 3 more books in the series which I will probably look into.
Sep 07, 2010
Becky
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As anti-semitic sentiment increases in Vienna in 1939, two Jewish sisters (7 and 12) are sent by their parents to Sweden for safety. The girls find themselves living on a small Swedish island--with separate families. This story centers around the girls' adjustment to their new circumstances. First of a quartet of books originally published in Sweden, this appears to be the first title released in translation in the U.S. (Batchelder Award for best children's translation in 2010)
Girl appeal More...
Girl appeal More...
Mar 09, 2010
Courtney
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I found the historical context of the story really interesting (Jewish children who were sent from Austria to live in Sweden during WWII), but never really connected with the characters themselves--in fact, I occasionally really didn't like the main character (Stephie). Overall, I think that the writing was really not all that great--which is unfortunate given the compelling nature of the story.
May 06, 2010
Vicki
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Another little known piece of history. Two Austrian girls are sent (along with 500 other Jewish children) to foster homes in Sweden to keep them safe during the Nazis regime in Europe. This is the first of 4 books written about Stephie and Nellie, and the only one translated into English so far. The children are quite realistically portrayed.
Feb 01, 2010
Kirsten
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I really liked this - a Jewish refugee goes to Sweden in 1939 to be fostered (when Sweden was only taking child refugees, not adults). She has a rough assimilation period. The characters are well-drawn and totally believable. I hope the rest of the series is translated from the Swedish, because I'd love to find out what happens next!
May 28, 2011
Zeborah
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Two sisters are part of the 500 Jewish children evacuated from Austria to Sweden; they end up in separate but nearby families on a small island. The younger fits in quickly, the elder (on whom the story focuses) is bullied at school and feels unwelcome at home. These are fairly predictable plot-shapes but nicely told.
Mar 08, 2010
Jean
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This Batchelder winner introduces us to a pair of Jewish sisters who are sent to live in Sweden after Hitler invades their homeland in Austria. Not only are they thrust into a situation that has removed them from their family and everything they knew, but they must struggle to learn a new language and new customs. This is a different look at life before and during WW II but one that is totally accessible to today's young people.
May 03, 2010
Peg
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Interesting history but a less-than-involving story. It will appeal to youngsters who like reading Holocaust fiction; it's simpler (both in plot and events) than many such as Number the Stars. I found Stephie's narrative tedious after a while and don't know if it's the translation or the writing.
