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286th out of 386 books
—
1,414 voters
The Year of Goodbyes
by
Debbie Levy (Goodreads Author)
This book tells the true story of what happened to a 12-year-old girl named Jutta (Debbie Levy’s mother) in 1938. Actual entries in a posiealbum (autograph book) serve as stepping stones in a crucial year in history, when people of Jewish ancestry in Germany and Austria were systematically stripped of their rights, subjected to violence, and arrested without cause. Jutta w
...moreHardcover, 144 pages
Published
March 16th 2010
by Disney-Hyperion
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A really good choice for a Beehive nominee. This book was different in its origin that it crosses various shelves--including historical and biographical. I am always one where "based on true stories" gets to me. This book not only is based on one, but uses actual records from the author's mother's life. I was simply in awe of things they wrote. And I loved the free verse the author used to supplement what was occurring between the various entries. But what wrenched my heart was to read what happ...more
12 year old Jutta Salzberg lives in Germany in 1938. She likes going to school and being with her friends and having fun - just like you. Jutta lives in 1938 though, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazis were in power. Hitler and the Nazis were responsible for the oppression and killing of Jewish people in Germany from 1941-1945. Jutta and her family are Jewish and try to live normally even though rules keep being passed that make their Jewish customs and way of life illegal. Finally, Jutta’s dad real...more
While there are many novels and non-fiction books about the Holocaust aimed at young readers, with more appearing every year, Debbie Levy's unique little volume deserves a place on school and public library shelves. Levy's mother, Jutta Salzberg, and her immediate family were among the fortunate few--they left Germany in 1938 for America, barely escaping arrest and probable death at the hands of the Nazis.
One of the few cherished items Jutta was able to bring with her was her posiealbum, or poe...more
One of the few cherished items Jutta was able to bring with her was her posiealbum, or poe...more
In The Year of Goodbyes, author Debbie Levy takes a fresh approach to memoir and the story of German Jews in the late 1930s. The book takes place in the year 1938, when Jutta Salzberg, Levy’s mother, is a 12-year-old girl living in Hamburg, Germany. Restrictions against Jews have gotten tighter during the last few years, and her father is desperate to leave with his family for the U.S., where he has relatives who will sponsor him. They have permission from German officials and the money to book...more
I wanted to give this a 3.5 rating.
This book is good, and it is interesting. It's a little light on information, though. There are copies of the actual written pages of the author's mother's posie album, written during WWII in Germany. There are also a few pages from the mother's own diary.
The text portions of it, though, are written by the author as an interpretation of conversations she had with her mother about what happened. It kind of bothered me that it was not the mother's own words, and...more
This book is good, and it is interesting. It's a little light on information, though. There are copies of the actual written pages of the author's mother's posie album, written during WWII in Germany. There are also a few pages from the mother's own diary.
The text portions of it, though, are written by the author as an interpretation of conversations she had with her mother about what happened. It kind of bothered me that it was not the mother's own words, and...more
I scanned this book and almost didn't read it. I'm glad I gave it a second look. The form is unique and lovely, the story puts a human face on the tragedies of World War II without being overly frightening for children, and the writing is excellent. I shelved this book as YA but in many cases it could be appropriate for a guided middle-grader. The book contains a reference to a girl's maturation and also to some disturbing Nazi Germany events and the harsh fears of an entire community.
The After...more
The After...more
Wow. I'm only a few pages in but already crying. Evocative and beautiful, without terrorizing. A really good Holocaust book for younger readers not ready for graphic histories.
"Father used to say, 'Things will get better.' He doesn't say that anymore."
The things children think about as they mourn the loss of their normal lives -- "Who will get my roller skates?" -- will help young readers understand and feel the losses of even those who lived.
"We are here in America. This will be home now. No Na...more
"Father used to say, 'Things will get better.' He doesn't say that anymore."
The things children think about as they mourn the loss of their normal lives -- "Who will get my roller skates?" -- will help young readers understand and feel the losses of even those who lived.
"We are here in America. This will be home now. No Na...more
Debbie Levy's sparse words deliver a powerful message in this middle grade novel based on her mother Jutta's escape from Nazi Germany.
Using her mother's poesiealbum as a springboard, the author opens each chapter with an entry from the "poetry album," an autograph book filled with poetry and drawings from friends, the very friends she was leaving behind as her family fled to America.
This candid look at a 12 year old's life in an ever changing country will leave readers feeling sad, yet happy a...more
Using her mother's poesiealbum as a springboard, the author opens each chapter with an entry from the "poetry album," an autograph book filled with poetry and drawings from friends, the very friends she was leaving behind as her family fled to America.
This candid look at a 12 year old's life in an ever changing country will leave readers feeling sad, yet happy a...more
Beautifully written, well researched and utterly heartbreaking. This is based on the Levy’s mother’s actual poesiealbum popular in Germany at the time of Hitler’s rise. Levy ties all of the children’s entries together in a poetic narrative that explains what is happening all around them. This would be an impressive and moving enough insight of 1938, the year Hitler really began asserting his anti-Jew policies. Then Levy fills you in on what happened to all these people after her mother’s family...more
About the holocaust. This is based on the author's mother's posiealbum (similar to an autograph book) and diary written in 1938 as well as her mother's recollections of her last year in Hamburg,Germany. The author quotes the posiealbum (translating the German into English) and adds poetry or verse about those experiences. It was an interesting and unique approach to this time period. I appreciated that she shared what happened to each of the people who signed the album, except five who she has b...more
Told through the actual diary /autograph book entries of Levy's mother from 1938, Year of Goodbyes is a heartbreaking look through the eyes of a young Jewish girl at the days leading up to the Holocaust. The entries were touching enough; however, Levy's follow-up research concerning what happened to everyone else mentioned in the days after the entries is chilling and what really hits the reader. A well-researched book that would be an excellent companion to Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl...more
The Year of Goodbyes tells the story of Jutta Salzberg and her family during the time just before World War II. The book is told through poesiealbum entries of Jutta's friends and family. A poesiealbum is a diary/autograph book that was popular with young girls at this time. The poesiealbum was often taken home by a friend and great care was given to create a well-decorated and inspirational thought in the book. The author, Debbie Levy, is Jutta's daughter. Levy has recreated and translated the...more
This book is about a gIrl named Jutta who lives in the late 1930s, which is around the time Hitler was in power. Fearing for their lives, her family and her get tickets to America. Jutta feels a mix of emotions when leaving; she feels sadness to see herself leave what she has always called home, hope for the future, and joy to leave the Nazis.
I liked learning from this perspective. I also loved that the book was written in a journal where all of her friends write goodbye notes and advice and the...more
I liked learning from this perspective. I also loved that the book was written in a journal where all of her friends write goodbye notes and advice and the...more
Jul 28, 2010
Erin
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Shelves:
biography,
death,
girl-main-character,
historical,
non-fiction,
poetry,
short,
t2-2010,
tween,
teen
I typically appreciate books that approach history in a unique format, and this was no exception. Each chapter began with an excerpt from the author's mother (Jutta)'s autograph album, and then finished with free verse text that revealed what Jutta was thinking.
Very similar in topic to Is it Night or Day?, this is another Holocaust novel that follows a story that I feel I haven't heard before. Jutta was fortunate to escape from Germany, but the narrative also touched on many of her friends and f...more
Very similar in topic to Is it Night or Day?, this is another Holocaust novel that follows a story that I feel I haven't heard before. Jutta was fortunate to escape from Germany, but the narrative also touched on many of her friends and f...more
I liked the premise behind this - a story told through the autographs and notes in a girl's "yearbook." The real excerpts are included, but then Debbie writes several story poems based on her mom's story. I'm not sure it's great for the intended audience, since I thought the connections between the little poems from the kids and the poems based on Jutta's story were difficult to find. All the same, the poem-story would appeal to many of my students, and I know it's another good way to present th...more
I picked this book up in the child's section, but it is definitely great for adults. It goes through the year 1938 and a 12-year-old girl who lived in Germany and who was Jewish. Through poems and notes from friends, you can read of the emotions of this girl during this scary time when the Nazis were becoming more and more violent towards the Jews.
The book is well researched and tells you what happened to a lot of the girl's friends and family. It was so sad in some ways, but made me want to be...more
The book is well researched and tells you what happened to a lot of the girl's friends and family. It was so sad in some ways, but made me want to be...more
This was a fascinating WWII account told with the use of a little girl's friend-journal or autograph diary. It is a true story, the little girl being the author's mother. She was a little Jewish girl in Hamburg, Germany at the time of the Nazi rise in power. Included is each page of the diary where a different friend has signed, perhaps leaving a little poem or a little piece of advice, together with a commentary (told in first person) of how the little girl really felt about that note from her...more
I attended the Annapolis Book Festival in April as a panelist on the subject: Young Adult: Keeping It Real. Debbie Levy, the author of The Year of Goodbyes and a fellow panelist, explained how she decided to write this book using the format she did. The book is about her young Jewish mother living in Nazi Germany, but Levy tells the story in verse, based on entries in her mother's "posiealbum," a book in which friends record thoughts, poems, and creative postings. Levy also used her mother's per...more
May 25, 2011
Krista the Krazy Kataloguer
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Shelves:
read-childrens-books,
read-novels-in-verse
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
This book is written in a very cool format. Author Debbie Levy includes photos, stickers, doodles, poetry, and entries from her mother's real poesiealbum, which is a album young girls in Germany used to own. Debbie Levy's mother, growing up as a Jewish girl in Hamburg, Germany, used to have her friends write quotes and sayings in her album. The book focuses on the situation in Germany in 1938. Fortunately, Jutta and her family were able to escape the country and come to America before it was too...more
This is a different view than you normally get from a World War II book. It is based on a book that the author's mother had made. A book her friend's could write their good-byes in and where her mother wrote a few of her own thoughts like a journal. There our photocopies of the mother's book, translation, and then the author has added some narrative of what is going on at the time.
It brought dimension to the refugee experience. It shows how things built up to what they became. Loved it.
It brought dimension to the refugee experience. It shows how things built up to what they became. Loved it.
"We escaped the Nazis by six hours."
Debbie Levy has expanded in free verse upon the poesiealbum her mother kept as a young Jewish girl in Germany in 1938. Chilling to read that her mother and her family barely made it out of Hamburg before the Nazis raided their apartment, and to see in the endnotes that several of the young women who'd written little quotes in the poesiealbum and died in Auschwitz. The personal connection to the story makes this book all the more powerful.
Debbie Levy has expanded in free verse upon the poesiealbum her mother kept as a young Jewish girl in Germany in 1938. Chilling to read that her mother and her family barely made it out of Hamburg before the Nazis raided their apartment, and to see in the endnotes that several of the young women who'd written little quotes in the poesiealbum and died in Auschwitz. The personal connection to the story makes this book all the more powerful.
A very quick and different type of Holocaust novel to read. The author presented pages from her mother's poesieablum - like an autograph book of the time - and comments on what her friends wrote and what was going on in the world around them - 1938 Germany. The author presents information at the end along with what happened to the writer's in her mother's book. Just a question - shouldn't the mother have receieved credit as a co-author at least?
A short book about the poesiealbums that were popular with girls in the 1930s (and before) in Germany. Jutta was a Jewish girl living in Nazi Germany, and pages of her poesiealbum are included and translated, interspersed with the story of her family's efforts to leave Germany in 1938. Parts of the diary that she kept that year are also included, along with the fates of many of the friends and family that are recorded in it.
Upon reading this book, I was impressed with the personal notes written in friendship. Later, these messages became more cherished because of the terrible circumstances of time and place. Curiousity led me to question what happened to the girls who had written in Jutta's album. Unfortuately only a few of her classmates escaped tragic endings, but those who were spared were bound by that same friendship many years later.
Great story, I love the way that Debbie Levy tells her mother story. Although it was a Story of a Jewish family during Nazi Germany, it left me feeling hopeful about humanity. I love the advice that Jutta receive in her Poesiealbum, the advice were thoughtful and beautiful. It was sad to learn what happen at many of the kids that wrote to Jutta but it just brought up the reality that these people were real.
The Year of Goodbyes is a very personal look into Nazi Germany and the atrocities dished out to those of Jewish descent. I think the reason I liked this so well was that the characters were real and that made the happenings so much more personal. I loved the way that Levy took a friend's entry in the autograph book and wove into it her mother's thoughts and feelings at the time. They tied together so smoothly.
This is a wonderful book for young adults to learn what the beginning of WWII was like for those living in Germany. It is also easy for them to connect with the book as it is based on an actual Posiealbum (similar to an autograph book)belonging to the author's mother. I especially liked that the author went the extra mile to find out what had happened to her mother's childhood friends during and after WWII.
A lovely little book. In the 1930's Germany girls had poesiealbums - something like our autograph albums. Levy found her mother's poesiealbum from 1938 when her mother was 12 and Nazis were expelling Jews. Her mother's family left Germany one day before their home was raided and 2 days before Kristalnacht; they sailed on the Queen Mary for the United States.
Levy and her mother, Jutta, use the entries in the poesiealbum and entries from Jutta's diary - each page reproduced with a translation and...more
Levy and her mother, Jutta, use the entries in the poesiealbum and entries from Jutta's diary - each page reproduced with a translation and...more
The premise of this book is so lovely—it feels like a diary, written around entries from the author's mother's poesiealbum (a kind of autograph book in which German children wrote thoughtful notes to each other) from 1938, the last year before her family fled Germany. The little poems and drawings are included in their writers' handwriting, each a small piece of history.
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Jun 25, 2010 04:14pm