I am undecided about this book. I sympathised with the animals and the Rom children, and wanted to find out what happened to them, but I was left unsatisfied with the end. The setting hinted at but never named is the 2nd World War in Europe, and there was little uplifting in that situation. There is also very little uplifting in this book. Actually it's quite depressing. I think the author assumes the reader knows about this history, that the war was a hatred and genocide, not just a territorial war. It is also assumed that the child reading the book can work out the implied ending. It's certainly not a book I could give to every child to read.