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Out of the Hitler Time #2
Bombs on Aunt Dainty
Partly autobiographical, this is the second title in Judith Kerr’s internationally acclaimed trilogy of books following the life of Anna through war-torn Germany, to London during the Blitz and her return to Berlin to discover the past…
It is hard enough being a teenager in London during the Blitz, finding yourself in love and wondering every night whether you will survive the bombs. But it is even harder for Anna, who is still officially classified as an “enemy alien”. Those bombs are coming from Germany – the country that was once her own. If Hitler invades, can she and her beloved refugee family possibly survive?
This was previously published as The Other Way Round.
It is hard enough being a teenager in London during the Blitz, finding yourself in love and wondering every night whether you will survive the bombs. But it is even harder for Anna, who is still officially classified as an “enemy alien”. Those bombs are coming from Germany – the country that was once her own. If Hitler invades, can she and her beloved refugee family possibly survive?
This was previously published as The Other Way Round.
386 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1975
127 people are currently reading
1855 people want to read
About the author
Judith Kerr
118 books380 followersJudith Kerr was a German-born British writer and illustrator who has created both enduring picture books such as the Mog series and The Tiger Who Came To Tea and acclaimed novels for older children such as the autobiographical When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit which give a child's-eye view of the Second World War.
Kerr was born in Berlin but left Germany with her parents and her brother, Michael, in 1933, soon after the Nazis first came to power. They were forced to leave as her father, noted drama critic, journalist and screenwriter Alfred Kerr, had openly criticised the Nazis,who burned his books shortly after the family had fled Germany. They travelled first to Switzerland and then on into France, before finally settling in Britain, where Kerr has lived ever since. She subsequently became a naturalised British citizen.
Kerr was born in Berlin but left Germany with her parents and her brother, Michael, in 1933, soon after the Nazis first came to power. They were forced to leave as her father, noted drama critic, journalist and screenwriter Alfred Kerr, had openly criticised the Nazis,who burned his books shortly after the family had fled Germany. They travelled first to Switzerland and then on into France, before finally settling in Britain, where Kerr has lived ever since. She subsequently became a naturalised British citizen.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 203 reviews
July 27, 2019
Reading this as a buddy read with Lisa Vegan and Gundula was hugely enjoyable. This is an ideal book for a buddy read, discussing each day the 4 chapters we had read.
This second book in the Out of the Hitler Time trilogy follows Anna, Max and their parents as they begin life in England following their escape from Berlin before the start of WWII. There is a three year gap from the end of When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit and we join Anna and Max as young adults. Sadly this book has no illustrations, probably due to the fact this is a young adult book. I think that illustrations would have been appropriate for this story, particularly as it is following the start Anna's art career. I would really like to have seen some drawings, particularly the ones the story mentions.
Max has won a scholarship to Cambridge and Anna has discovered her talent for drawing in an evening class. When the war continues and the blitz begins the situation gets worse for Anna's family. Max faces problems due to having been born in Germany, Mama and Papa struggle to pay the rent and Anna has troubles with an unethical but probably quite typical of the time art tutor.
As the title suggests for this family things are now the other way round. In the first book which covers Anna and Max's childhood, they were happy as long as they were with their parents. Now they are happy in England, they are beginning new lives but their parents feel out of place and need Anna and Max to feel content and complete.
As the first book, when Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit, was a childhood favourite of mine I was worried I would be dissapointed by the sequel but I am pleased to say it is a worthy follow up and a interesting look into life during WWII London and a family's attempts to build a new life it yet another country.
Read on openlibrary
This second book in the Out of the Hitler Time trilogy follows Anna, Max and their parents as they begin life in England following their escape from Berlin before the start of WWII. There is a three year gap from the end of When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit and we join Anna and Max as young adults. Sadly this book has no illustrations, probably due to the fact this is a young adult book. I think that illustrations would have been appropriate for this story, particularly as it is following the start Anna's art career. I would really like to have seen some drawings, particularly the ones the story mentions.
Max has won a scholarship to Cambridge and Anna has discovered her talent for drawing in an evening class. When the war continues and the blitz begins the situation gets worse for Anna's family. Max faces problems due to having been born in Germany, Mama and Papa struggle to pay the rent and Anna has troubles with an unethical but probably quite typical of the time art tutor.
As the title suggests for this family things are now the other way round. In the first book which covers Anna and Max's childhood, they were happy as long as they were with their parents. Now they are happy in England, they are beginning new lives but their parents feel out of place and need Anna and Max to feel content and complete.
As the first book, when Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit, was a childhood favourite of mine I was worried I would be dissapointed by the sequel but I am pleased to say it is a worthy follow up and a interesting look into life during WWII London and a family's attempts to build a new life it yet another country.
Read on openlibrary
July 23, 2019
This is the second book in an autobiographical novels trilogy that started with When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit. I was so worried that I would not like this book the way I did the first but I really enjoyed it. I’m still worried about the third book but want to read it.
It was lovely getting acquainted again with Anna, her brother Max, her mother and her father, and many new interesting characters.
I read this book as a buddy read with Hilary and Gundula. It’s a great buddy read book. Hilary and I particularly enjoyed and benefited reading chapters at close to the same times and discussing things every two chapters.
This author writes so well, and is a great storyteller, and skilled at getting into and describing characters, and also places and experiences and situations. I felt as though I was really there as I read.
It was so infuriating the way Max and Anna were treated because they were born in Germany and not England, especially given that they were Jewish, left in 1933, and their father being an anti-Nazi writer. They’re both so talented and smart and skilled. I know this prejudice was a common problem though.
This book made me want to learn more and many times I looked up the Blitz and streets and landmarks and buildings and sites when they were mentioned.
Unlike the first book, a children’s book, this it did veer into young adult territory. I will say there is one character I disliked intensely, even though there ended up being one sort of redeeming thing about them.
I loved Anna’s art commission and wish there had been illustrations of her drawings at least. I do think that even though this is ya and the first book was children’s that the charming pen and ink illustrations in the first book would have added something here, especially since Anna is an artists and her drawings are often mentioned. The book was fine sans pictures but I think would have been even better with them included throughout this second book.
So much was touching. For some reason the couple times I was near tears at times, its seemed to usually be around scenes with Papa, with Anna and Papa.
I feel the reader gets an accurate sense, as in the first book, of what it would feel like to be a refugee, and in now the family is in their fourth country (Germany to Switzerland, to France, and now in England) and also how much easier it is for young vs. older people to learn new languages, adapt to new cultures and circumstances, etc. I also got a good sense of how it would feel to have privations of food and to live in near poverty and have those worries, to fear the bombings, and just to live with the uncertainty that is war. Despite all these characters go through I often thought of those who did not escape Nazi occupied Europe in time, and could sort of understand how these characters seemed to accept their hardships. They too knew the alternative.
I loved the story, the characters and found this to be a fine sequel. I hope I’ll feel as positively about book 3. From what little description I’ve seen of it, each book has great differences from the others.
This book has two titles. The other is Bombs on Aunt Dainty. It was interesting to get to the part in the book that made clear why the other title exists, but I think The Other Way Round title is most fitting for this second book.
I read a 1975 edition from Open Library. Thank goodness for that site. It often has books that seem impossible to get otherwise, at least not for free.
four and a half stars
It was lovely getting acquainted again with Anna, her brother Max, her mother and her father, and many new interesting characters.
I read this book as a buddy read with Hilary and Gundula. It’s a great buddy read book. Hilary and I particularly enjoyed and benefited reading chapters at close to the same times and discussing things every two chapters.
This author writes so well, and is a great storyteller, and skilled at getting into and describing characters, and also places and experiences and situations. I felt as though I was really there as I read.
It was so infuriating the way Max and Anna were treated because they were born in Germany and not England, especially given that they were Jewish, left in 1933, and their father being an anti-Nazi writer. They’re both so talented and smart and skilled. I know this prejudice was a common problem though.
This book made me want to learn more and many times I looked up the Blitz and streets and landmarks and buildings and sites when they were mentioned.
Unlike the first book, a children’s book, this it did veer into young adult territory. I will say there is one character I disliked intensely, even though there ended up being one sort of redeeming thing about them.
I loved Anna’s art commission and wish there had been illustrations of her drawings at least. I do think that even though this is ya and the first book was children’s that the charming pen and ink illustrations in the first book would have added something here, especially since Anna is an artists and her drawings are often mentioned. The book was fine sans pictures but I think would have been even better with them included throughout this second book.
So much was touching. For some reason the couple times I was near tears at times, its seemed to usually be around scenes with Papa, with Anna and Papa.
I feel the reader gets an accurate sense, as in the first book, of what it would feel like to be a refugee, and in now the family is in their fourth country (Germany to Switzerland, to France, and now in England) and also how much easier it is for young vs. older people to learn new languages, adapt to new cultures and circumstances, etc. I also got a good sense of how it would feel to have privations of food and to live in near poverty and have those worries, to fear the bombings, and just to live with the uncertainty that is war. Despite all these characters go through I often thought of those who did not escape Nazi occupied Europe in time, and could sort of understand how these characters seemed to accept their hardships. They too knew the alternative.
I loved the story, the characters and found this to be a fine sequel. I hope I’ll feel as positively about book 3. From what little description I’ve seen of it, each book has great differences from the others.
This book has two titles. The other is Bombs on Aunt Dainty. It was interesting to get to the part in the book that made clear why the other title exists, but I think The Other Way Round title is most fitting for this second book.
I read a 1975 edition from Open Library. Thank goodness for that site. It often has books that seem impossible to get otherwise, at least not for free.
four and a half stars
March 12, 2022
Now truth be told, albeit that I have not quite enjoyed Judith Kerr's The Other Way Round quite as much as the first novel, as When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit, I still have found The Other Way Round (which is also available under the alternative title of Bombs on Aunt Dainty) a both heartwarming and heartbreaking, as well as generally delightfully and refreshingly truthful seeming and feeling depiction and description of how Anna, Max and their parents (who actually of course are meant to represent Judith Kerr and her family) experience WWII as Jewish German refugees in England, in the United Kingdom.
However and even though I have indeed found The Other Way Round for the most part very much and sweetly delightfully realistic, unexaggerated and very much appreciatively honest, I still do kind of wish that Judith Kerr's narrative had been just a trifle more overtly critical of both the English government for arresting her older brother Max as a possible enemy alien (although I also on a realistic level do well understand the political reasons why this happened) and also yes, l personally do strongly believe that there should equally have been a quite bit more authorial criticism levelled at the father. For while I was reading The Other Way Round, it certainly has at times seemed to me as though in particular Anna is often (if not usually) considerably harder on her hardworking and often stressed out mother and basically does seem to think and believe that her father can somehow do no wrong, that he both needs and also totally deserves to be shielded, coddled and for the most part always forgiven (not to mention that I also do find it rather problematic that the lecherous art tutor who makes some pretty inappropriate moves on Anna is not raked over the proverbial coals a bit more severely in The Other Way Round, for even though Anna ends up with an art scholarship, Mr. Cotmore's behaviour towards her is in my opinion both totally inappropriate and should have faced considerably more textual condemnation within the pages of The Other Way Round).
But yes, even with my personal criticisms, I still very much consider The Other Way Round a wonderful and engaging sequel to When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit and personally cheer and laud the now unfortunately late Judith Kerr for having penned a WWII novel of such delightful honesty, candour and descriptiveness (a story where the horrors of WWII and Nazism are depicted in a realistic but still generally gentle enough manner, totally and completely suitable and appropriate for young readers from about the age of eleven or so onwards).
However and even though I have indeed found The Other Way Round for the most part very much and sweetly delightfully realistic, unexaggerated and very much appreciatively honest, I still do kind of wish that Judith Kerr's narrative had been just a trifle more overtly critical of both the English government for arresting her older brother Max as a possible enemy alien (although I also on a realistic level do well understand the political reasons why this happened) and also yes, l personally do strongly believe that there should equally have been a quite bit more authorial criticism levelled at the father. For while I was reading The Other Way Round, it certainly has at times seemed to me as though in particular Anna is often (if not usually) considerably harder on her hardworking and often stressed out mother and basically does seem to think and believe that her father can somehow do no wrong, that he both needs and also totally deserves to be shielded, coddled and for the most part always forgiven (not to mention that I also do find it rather problematic that the lecherous art tutor who makes some pretty inappropriate moves on Anna is not raked over the proverbial coals a bit more severely in The Other Way Round, for even though Anna ends up with an art scholarship, Mr. Cotmore's behaviour towards her is in my opinion both totally inappropriate and should have faced considerably more textual condemnation within the pages of The Other Way Round).
But yes, even with my personal criticisms, I still very much consider The Other Way Round a wonderful and engaging sequel to When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit and personally cheer and laud the now unfortunately late Judith Kerr for having penned a WWII novel of such delightful honesty, candour and descriptiveness (a story where the horrors of WWII and Nazism are depicted in a realistic but still generally gentle enough manner, totally and completely suitable and appropriate for young readers from about the age of eleven or so onwards).
November 16, 2014
My copy of this is titled Bombs on Aunt Dainty. It's a brilliant sequel to When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit.
Now Anna is in London. (This is quite strange: I know almost all of the places she mentions, but in a later incarnation.) The war is on and she's in the middle of tbe blitz - a German refugee. It's a beautiful coming-of-age novel. Her family is in extreme poverty, she leaves school, does a secretarial course, finds work. She starts art classes, falls in love with her art teacher, and becomes an artist.
It's a very honest book. Honest to the times, to the place, and to human experience.
Near the end, she asks her father whether he ever felt, that there was no point.
“The chief point about these last, admittedly wretched years,” he said, “is that it is infinitely better to be alive than dead. Another is that if I had not lived through them I would never have known what it felt like.”
“What it felt like?”
He nodded. “To be poor, even desperate, in a cold, foggy country where the natives, although friendly, gargle some kind of Anglo-Saxon dialect…”
She laughed uncertainly.
“I’m a writer,” he said. “A writer has to know. Haven’t you found that?”
“I’m not a writer,” said Anna.
“You may be one day. But even an aspiring painter –” He hesitated, only for a moment. “There is a piece of me,” he said carefully, “quite separate from the rest, like a little man sitting on my forehead. And whatever happens, he just watches. Even if it’s something terrible. He notices how I feel, what I say, whether I want to shout, whether my hands are trembling — and he says, how interesting! How interesting to know what it feels like.”
Now Anna is in London. (This is quite strange: I know almost all of the places she mentions, but in a later incarnation.) The war is on and she's in the middle of tbe blitz - a German refugee. It's a beautiful coming-of-age novel. Her family is in extreme poverty, she leaves school, does a secretarial course, finds work. She starts art classes, falls in love with her art teacher, and becomes an artist.
It's a very honest book. Honest to the times, to the place, and to human experience.
Near the end, she asks her father whether he ever felt, that there was no point.
“The chief point about these last, admittedly wretched years,” he said, “is that it is infinitely better to be alive than dead. Another is that if I had not lived through them I would never have known what it felt like.”
“What it felt like?”
He nodded. “To be poor, even desperate, in a cold, foggy country where the natives, although friendly, gargle some kind of Anglo-Saxon dialect…”
She laughed uncertainly.
“I’m a writer,” he said. “A writer has to know. Haven’t you found that?”
“I’m not a writer,” said Anna.
“You may be one day. But even an aspiring painter –” He hesitated, only for a moment. “There is a piece of me,” he said carefully, “quite separate from the rest, like a little man sitting on my forehead. And whatever happens, he just watches. Even if it’s something terrible. He notices how I feel, what I say, whether I want to shout, whether my hands are trembling — and he says, how interesting! How interesting to know what it feels like.”
June 21, 2019
Picking up three years after the conclusion of
When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit
, this second autobiographical children's novel from Judith Kerr - originally published in 1975 as The Other Way Round, it has recently been re-released in the UK as Bombs On Aunt Dainty - follows the story of Anna, her brother Max, and her mother and father, as they struggle through the war years in England. Now a teenager, and fully assimilated into the English life and language, Anna must find a job quickly when the wealthy family friends with whom she has been living return to America, and she must move in with her parents at the run-down refugee hotel where they have been living. As the war progresses, all three must contend with the horrors of the Blitz. Max, in the meantime, finds his life as a promising Cambridge scholar interrupted, when he is interned as an enemy alien. The family carry on, each trying in their own way to find a place to belong, although this time it is the children - Max, with his interest in the law, and his desire to join the British Air Force, and Anna, with her newly discovered passion for drawing and painting, and her very first love "affair" - that are more successful...
Immensely engaging, often heartwarming, and sometimes deeply poignant, The Other Way Round is a worthy sequel to When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit , offering a further exploration of the emigrant experience, as Anna and her family must contend with all the difficulties of life in WWII Britain - food rationing, bombings - as well as the experience of being considered foreigners, even though they want (at least in Anna and Max's case) to be English. The reversal hinted at in the title, is of the role of the parents and children in the family, as Max and Anna must move to support their mother and father, who never quite adjust to life in England. There are moments of extreme pathos here - the story of Uncle Victor (the husband of the "Aunt Dainty" mentioned in the new title), who survived a concentration camp, but was completely broken in body and spirit, had me in tears - and moments of deep satisfaction, as when Anna completes her first big artistic project, in the form of a series of murals on the walls of a local cafe. Most powerful of all, for me however, was Anna's evolving relationship with her parents, particularly her father, and her growing sensitivity to their life struggles. As someone who recently lost my own father (the one year anniversary of his death just passed), I found myself immensely moved by some of the scenes toward the end of the book, in which Anna realizes that her father will not live forever, and contemplates life without him.
A marvelous family story and an important work of historical fiction, The Other Way Round is a book I would wholeheartedly recommend, particularly to those readers who enjoyed When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit . Sadly, it does not have any of the author's illustrations, as that earlier work did, but then, I think this is really more of a young adult novel, than one for children. I will definitely be tracking down the third and final installment of this family's saga, A Small Person Far Away !
Immensely engaging, often heartwarming, and sometimes deeply poignant, The Other Way Round is a worthy sequel to When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit , offering a further exploration of the emigrant experience, as Anna and her family must contend with all the difficulties of life in WWII Britain - food rationing, bombings - as well as the experience of being considered foreigners, even though they want (at least in Anna and Max's case) to be English. The reversal hinted at in the title, is of the role of the parents and children in the family, as Max and Anna must move to support their mother and father, who never quite adjust to life in England. There are moments of extreme pathos here - the story of Uncle Victor (the husband of the "Aunt Dainty" mentioned in the new title), who survived a concentration camp, but was completely broken in body and spirit, had me in tears - and moments of deep satisfaction, as when Anna completes her first big artistic project, in the form of a series of murals on the walls of a local cafe. Most powerful of all, for me however, was Anna's evolving relationship with her parents, particularly her father, and her growing sensitivity to their life struggles. As someone who recently lost my own father (the one year anniversary of his death just passed), I found myself immensely moved by some of the scenes toward the end of the book, in which Anna realizes that her father will not live forever, and contemplates life without him.
A marvelous family story and an important work of historical fiction, The Other Way Round is a book I would wholeheartedly recommend, particularly to those readers who enjoyed When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit . Sadly, it does not have any of the author's illustrations, as that earlier work did, but then, I think this is really more of a young adult novel, than one for children. I will definitely be tracking down the third and final installment of this family's saga, A Small Person Far Away !
May 26, 2015
Brilliant sequel. If you enjoyed "When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit" then you will find this next book equally fascinating. Kerr is a fantastic writer and describes life throughout WW2 and the Blitz in vivid detail, without being overly descriptive. This is a quick and easy read suitable for readers of all ages. I'm looking forward to reading the last book in this trilogy - "A Small Person, Far Away".
March 10, 2023
I so loved When Hitler stole Pink Rabbit I was a little worried that this, the second ofJudith Kerr’s ‘war’ trilogy, wouldn’t live up to the first. Indeed, I was disappointed to find that it doesn’t start where Pink Rabbit ends but we find Anna, aged 16, already finished school and her life plunged into wartime Britain, living in central London during the blitz.
It’s a grittier tale altogether and not specifically aimed at children. There are no author’s notes here either so I’m not sure how much of it is autobiographical. Anna is not so loveable as a teen as she was a young girl (who is?) but as she negotiates the tricky path of adolescence, being a refugee, the horror of wartime Britain and her family on the poverty line we more than understand why.
Again, skilfully written with both pathos and humour and the really strong bond between Anna & Pappa shines throughout. It didn’t touch me quite as much as pink rabbit but it’s still a wonderful read & I’m so looking forward to reading the third instalment.
It’s a grittier tale altogether and not specifically aimed at children. There are no author’s notes here either so I’m not sure how much of it is autobiographical. Anna is not so loveable as a teen as she was a young girl (who is?) but as she negotiates the tricky path of adolescence, being a refugee, the horror of wartime Britain and her family on the poverty line we more than understand why.
Again, skilfully written with both pathos and humour and the really strong bond between Anna & Pappa shines throughout. It didn’t touch me quite as much as pink rabbit but it’s still a wonderful read & I’m so looking forward to reading the third instalment.
November 15, 2020
Во второй из книг автобиографического цикла повестей главной героине исполняется 16 лет, и костяк повествования крутится вокруг взросления Джудит (в повести - Анны), поиска призвания, попыток выйти из бедности, в которую семья героини была загнана после побега из Германии. Ещё писательнице удалось трогательно (впрочем, скорее душераздирающе) рассказать об отце - видном немецком писателе Альфреде Керре. На старости лет он оказался оторванным от дома, семьи, круга друзей и коллег, жил по сути в нищете и чувствовал себя глубоко одиноким, но при этом не отчаивался и продолжал работать, - какая должна быть сила духа, чтоб не потерять себя в таких условиях? Но книга, конечно, не только о грустном, в ней рассказано о первой любви, добрых поступках, о взаимопомощи и умении находить силы, чтоб вытаскивать себя из отчаяния.
Подытоживая, скажу с уверенностью, что это одна из лучших автобиографических книг и книг о войне, что я прочла в жизни. Рекомендую всем-всем, только не смотрите на обложку - она детская, а содержание книги совсем не такое (я бы сказала, 14+).
P.S. Отдельное спасибо переводчице Марине Аромштам за безукоризненный перевод. Очень надеюсь, что она возьмётся и за третий том мемуаров Джудит Керр.
Подытоживая, скажу с уверенностью, что это одна из лучших автобиографических книг и книг о войне, что я прочла в жизни. Рекомендую всем-всем, только не смотрите на обложку - она детская, а содержание книги совсем не такое (я бы сказала, 14+).
P.S. Отдельное спасибо переводчице Марине Аромштам за безукоризненный перевод. Очень надеюсь, что она возьмётся и за третий том мемуаров Джудит Керр.
August 1, 2017
Well, it is an OK book, with some interesting developments and not badly written.
The peculiar situation of an émigré German Jew family escaped from the Nazi persecutions, and living in England during the War, is portrayed by the author in quite an insightful and sensitive manner.
The environment of London during the bombing raids is also credibly and atmospherically recreated.
I must say however that the book is in some parts quite "teenagerish" (well, not so surprising and not really a fault, considering the partially autobiographic content of the book) and the main character's love affair during the last part of the story bored me to tears.
3 stars.
The peculiar situation of an émigré German Jew family escaped from the Nazi persecutions, and living in England during the War, is portrayed by the author in quite an insightful and sensitive manner.
The environment of London during the bombing raids is also credibly and atmospherically recreated.
I must say however that the book is in some parts quite "teenagerish" (well, not so surprising and not really a fault, considering the partially autobiographic content of the book) and the main character's love affair during the last part of the story bored me to tears.
3 stars.
December 17, 2020
una muy buena continuación con lo ocurrido con Anna y su familia viviendo en Inglaterra tras la huida de su propio país para salvarse de la guerra. Ana ya es una adolescente de 16 años que vive las dificultades de primera mano para integrarse, buscar empleo y otros asuntos. un estilo más serio y maduro respecto del anterior, que fue más introductorio pero en el que hay un cambio por lo que ocurre. Muestra la crudeza de los bombardeos y el cómo están al borde de que pase algo más grave.
Ahora queda una gran pregunta que invita a seguir leyendo el tercer y último para saber cómo seguirá esta familia. recomiendo mucho.
Ahora queda una gran pregunta que invita a seguir leyendo el tercer y último para saber cómo seguirá esta familia. recomiendo mucho.
October 21, 2021
What a charming book. The writer tells us about the terrors of the London Blitz, about their travails as refugees from Germany, about her practical, enterprising mother and barely English-speaking writer father, her handsome, intelligent brother, various relatives, friends and helpful acquaintances. It is about adjusting and then completely fitting in, into this new country they have escaped to. A very shy, not confident, young girl, slowly growing up, coming to grips with her changing body and changing mind, her sudden flashes of pure happiness in the midst of general gloom, a coming of age story in the midst of war. Loved it.
February 27, 2016
I can't help thinking the editor/publisher must have chosen the title for this book, since Aunt Dainty doesn't appear until over halfway through the book, and the bomb in question not until very near the end.
The second volume in Kerr's WW2 memoirs; Vol 1 was chopped off in mid-conversation on arrival in London. Fast forward several years, and Anna is now fifteen. She and her parents are living in a "hotel" (ie boarding house) for European refugees while her beloved brother is studying law at Cambridge. Her parents are as impractical as ever, and Anna has to grow up fast and find a job to cover at least her own expenses. Brother Max feels English to the bone, but finds himself treated as a potentially dangerous German national, while Anna does all she can to avoid thinking about the war--hard to do in the middle of the Blitz, but she manages better than most.
I am still surprised that she came across no trace of anti-semitism, which I know from wider reading was evident among some of the British public; however, this is a book for younger readers, which may account for it. Perhaps, though, since Anna seems to have no real friends, she simply found self-isolation a way of not having to deal with all that.
Not as light as Vol1 but still a fast, pleasant read. Very little talk of rationing or the difficulties of living out the Blitz, but as a young girl with her first job living in a boarding house, she might have been less affected than those who had to do their own shopping, cooking etc.
The second volume in Kerr's WW2 memoirs; Vol 1 was chopped off in mid-conversation on arrival in London. Fast forward several years, and Anna is now fifteen. She and her parents are living in a "hotel" (ie boarding house) for European refugees while her beloved brother is studying law at Cambridge. Her parents are as impractical as ever, and Anna has to grow up fast and find a job to cover at least her own expenses. Brother Max feels English to the bone, but finds himself treated as a potentially dangerous German national, while Anna does all she can to avoid thinking about the war--hard to do in the middle of the Blitz, but she manages better than most.
I am still surprised that she came across no trace of anti-semitism, which I know from wider reading was evident among some of the British public; however, this is a book for younger readers, which may account for it. Perhaps, though, since Anna seems to have no real friends, she simply found self-isolation a way of not having to deal with all that.
Not as light as Vol1 but still a fast, pleasant read. Very little talk of rationing or the difficulties of living out the Blitz, but as a young girl with her first job living in a boarding house, she might have been less affected than those who had to do their own shopping, cooking etc.
July 9, 2019
This book continues the story of the family in When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit after a break of several years. As WWII begins in London, the family’s teenagers, Anna and Max, feel quite at home in England, while their parents struggle to adapt to the language and make a living. The focus here is primarily on adolescent Anna as she begins working, pursues her interest in art, and experiences changes in her relationship with her parents, but the entire family is affected by WWII and the Blitz. Fresh, honest, and very readable—I dashed through it in a day.
March 28, 2012
Absolutely brilliant. I loved how Anna is trying to deal with adolescence, finding herself, love, her family, supporting herself and her family through the absolute poverty they have to deal with. In the first book Anna says she will never feel like a refugee as long as she is with her family, then at the start of this book you immediately find out that she is no longer living with them which is quite interesting. An excellent book about coming of age during WW2.
March 24, 2022
A inicios de este 2022, la amenaza de la guerra, que nunca se ha ido del todo en realidad, volvió a estar muy presente en el ánimo de la humanidad. Por un azar del destino que no acabo de entender, dos de mis lecturas, sucesivas, tuvieron que ver de un modo u otro con el tema, y en pocas ocasiones como en esta he batallado un poco para animarme a avanzar con la lectura, porque a pesar de que esta en particular es una obra de ficción, se puede percibir a la perfección la cruel realidad en la que está basado, y eso hace que sea un poco difícil de asimilar. Del otro libro hablaré otro día, por lo pronto quedémonos en la batalla de Inglaterra.
El libro forma parte de una trilogía con la que la autora pretendió dar una idea a sus hijos sobre los horrores que vivió en su calidad de exiliada judía y alemana durante la segunda guerra mundial. En el, seguimos a una muchacha en su paso de la pubertad a la juventud mientras vemos las penurias que tienen que sortear ella y su familia, sobre todo cuando el conflicto armado finalmente llega a Inglaterra, país que los ha acogido en su intento por ponerse a salvo. Si el primer libro de la serie (Cuando Hitler se robó el conejito rosa") estaba enfocado hacia un público más infantil, este está dirigido hacia una audiencia más juvenil, pero no por eso deja de ser interés para los lectores más maduros en general.
Lo más destacable es el modo en que la autora nos descubre el mundo interior de su protagonista de un modo bastante enternecedor. Vemos como se va dando su despertar hacia los hechos que sacuden al mundo, como se va dando cuenta de su posición domo exiliada en un país extranjero, y como poco a poco se va transformando de niña en mujer, pasando por esa angustia de no saber a que se va a dedicar cuando sea grande. Desde luego, el aspecto sentimental no es dejado de lado, y somos testigos de las emociones y angustias del primer amor, que aunque no en el eje central de la novela, esta bien manejado sin ser algo empalagoso.
Lo que más me ha gustado del libro es que a pesar de que es una obra fuerte, no deja de ser un libro acerca de la esperanza. Nos enseña como aún en los momentos más oscuros, siempre hay cabida para la bondad y como, a pesar de las penurias, es importante aferrarse a ella, como forma de combatir la oscuridad interior que la guerra deja en aquellos que la han tenido que experimentar en carne propia. En ese sentido es una muy buena obra. Al final del libro acabas entendiendo las pequeñas frivolidades de la protagonista, y deseas con todo el corazón que finalmente haya podido lograr encontrar al fin un hogar propio, aceptada y haciendo aquello que más le gustaba. Es grato ver que al final si acabó lográndolo, señal de que siempre es posible pensar un poco en la esperanza sin ser defraudados.
El libro forma parte de una trilogía con la que la autora pretendió dar una idea a sus hijos sobre los horrores que vivió en su calidad de exiliada judía y alemana durante la segunda guerra mundial. En el, seguimos a una muchacha en su paso de la pubertad a la juventud mientras vemos las penurias que tienen que sortear ella y su familia, sobre todo cuando el conflicto armado finalmente llega a Inglaterra, país que los ha acogido en su intento por ponerse a salvo. Si el primer libro de la serie (Cuando Hitler se robó el conejito rosa") estaba enfocado hacia un público más infantil, este está dirigido hacia una audiencia más juvenil, pero no por eso deja de ser interés para los lectores más maduros en general.
Lo más destacable es el modo en que la autora nos descubre el mundo interior de su protagonista de un modo bastante enternecedor. Vemos como se va dando su despertar hacia los hechos que sacuden al mundo, como se va dando cuenta de su posición domo exiliada en un país extranjero, y como poco a poco se va transformando de niña en mujer, pasando por esa angustia de no saber a que se va a dedicar cuando sea grande. Desde luego, el aspecto sentimental no es dejado de lado, y somos testigos de las emociones y angustias del primer amor, que aunque no en el eje central de la novela, esta bien manejado sin ser algo empalagoso.
Lo que más me ha gustado del libro es que a pesar de que es una obra fuerte, no deja de ser un libro acerca de la esperanza. Nos enseña como aún en los momentos más oscuros, siempre hay cabida para la bondad y como, a pesar de las penurias, es importante aferrarse a ella, como forma de combatir la oscuridad interior que la guerra deja en aquellos que la han tenido que experimentar en carne propia. En ese sentido es una muy buena obra. Al final del libro acabas entendiendo las pequeñas frivolidades de la protagonista, y deseas con todo el corazón que finalmente haya podido lograr encontrar al fin un hogar propio, aceptada y haciendo aquello que más le gustaba. Es grato ver que al final si acabó lográndolo, señal de que siempre es posible pensar un poco en la esperanza sin ser defraudados.
March 4, 2024
Es continuación de “Cuando Hitler robó el conejo rosa”, por lo que en este caso seguimos a la familia de Anna, ahora con residencia en Inglaterra en su huida de la Alemania nazi. Anna ya es una joven que no depende tanto de sus padres y que junto a su hermano Max luchan por ser reconocidos y aceptados en su nueva nación sin el estigma de su origen alemán.
Anna retoma y desarrolla sus aptitudes para el dibujo y Max aprovecha una beca para estudiar derecho en Cambridge, mientras sus padres se sienten cada vez más desplazados por su condición de migrantes, preocupados siempre por obtener los recursos necesarios para sobrevivir en una guerra que ha extendido los ataques bélicos hasta el mismo Londres.
De igual manera, tanto Max como Anna, a pesar de que hablan muy bien el idioma y podrían tomarse como ingleses nativos, sufren de discriminación en cuanto los demás se enteran de que son alemanes, lo que les obliga a luchar con más empeño por sus metas y aprovechar las manos amigas que se tienden a su paso, con cuidado de aquellos otros que de una u otra forma se sirven de su situación. Porque además, debían sobrellevar sus vidas de jovenes adolescentes con todo lo que ello implicaba ayer y hoy.
En fin, una historia que nos abre la imaginación sobre el día a día de los desplazados de la Segunda Guerra y sus luchas por seguir adelante, en este caso desde el punto de vista de los niños jóvenes que vivieron esos hechos.
Una linda novela, recomendada. Una lástima que la tercera parte no esté traducida al español.
Anna retoma y desarrolla sus aptitudes para el dibujo y Max aprovecha una beca para estudiar derecho en Cambridge, mientras sus padres se sienten cada vez más desplazados por su condición de migrantes, preocupados siempre por obtener los recursos necesarios para sobrevivir en una guerra que ha extendido los ataques bélicos hasta el mismo Londres.
De igual manera, tanto Max como Anna, a pesar de que hablan muy bien el idioma y podrían tomarse como ingleses nativos, sufren de discriminación en cuanto los demás se enteran de que son alemanes, lo que les obliga a luchar con más empeño por sus metas y aprovechar las manos amigas que se tienden a su paso, con cuidado de aquellos otros que de una u otra forma se sirven de su situación. Porque además, debían sobrellevar sus vidas de jovenes adolescentes con todo lo que ello implicaba ayer y hoy.
En fin, una historia que nos abre la imaginación sobre el día a día de los desplazados de la Segunda Guerra y sus luchas por seguir adelante, en este caso desde el punto de vista de los niños jóvenes que vivieron esos hechos.
Una linda novela, recomendada. Una lástima que la tercera parte no esté traducida al español.
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January 4, 2023Anna und ihre Familie sind in England angekommen, aber ein ruhiges Leben ist trotzdem in weiter Ferne. Anna und ihre Eltern sind in einem Hotel untergekommen, Max studiert an der Universität. Die Mutter muss alleine den Lebensunterhalt bestreiten, weil der Vater keine Arbeit findet. Dann fallen die Bomben auch über London und die Familie muss wieder um ihr Leben fürchten.
Es ist Zeit vergangen seit den Ereignissen, die in "Als Hitler das rosa Kaninchen stahl" erzählt wurden. Anna ist kein kleines Mädchen mehr, sondern wird erwachsen. England ist nicht der sichere Hafen, den sich die Familie erhofft hatte. Der Krieg ist allgegenwärtig. Die Familie lebt in einem Hotel, in dem hauptsächlich Flüchtlinge leben und wird durch deren Erzählungen täglich mit dem Grauen konfrontiert, dem sie entkommen sind. Die nächtlichen Bombenangriffe legen ihre Nerven blank.
Aber es sind auch die alltäglichen Dinge, die sie dünnhäutig werden lassen. Die Mutter verdient kaum genug, um die Familie über Wasser zu halten. Auch Anna muss Geld verdienen. Max wird von der Universität weg verhaftet, weil er ein feindlicher Ausländer ist und mit der Gesundheit des Vaters geht es bergab.
Aber es gibt auch Schönes: die erste Liebe für Anna, ein Konzert, das sie mit dem Vater besucht und kleine Erfolge als Künstlerin.
Wie auch sein Vorgänger hat mich sehr berührt. Es erzählt vom fast normalen Leben in einer gar nicht normalen Zeit für kleine, aber auch für große Leser.
Es ist Zeit vergangen seit den Ereignissen, die in "Als Hitler das rosa Kaninchen stahl" erzählt wurden. Anna ist kein kleines Mädchen mehr, sondern wird erwachsen. England ist nicht der sichere Hafen, den sich die Familie erhofft hatte. Der Krieg ist allgegenwärtig. Die Familie lebt in einem Hotel, in dem hauptsächlich Flüchtlinge leben und wird durch deren Erzählungen täglich mit dem Grauen konfrontiert, dem sie entkommen sind. Die nächtlichen Bombenangriffe legen ihre Nerven blank.
Aber es sind auch die alltäglichen Dinge, die sie dünnhäutig werden lassen. Die Mutter verdient kaum genug, um die Familie über Wasser zu halten. Auch Anna muss Geld verdienen. Max wird von der Universität weg verhaftet, weil er ein feindlicher Ausländer ist und mit der Gesundheit des Vaters geht es bergab.
Aber es gibt auch Schönes: die erste Liebe für Anna, ein Konzert, das sie mit dem Vater besucht und kleine Erfolge als Künstlerin.
Wie auch sein Vorgänger hat mich sehr berührt. Es erzählt vom fast normalen Leben in einer gar nicht normalen Zeit für kleine, aber auch für große Leser.
May 22, 2024
Very good book, I am currently too lazy to describe. Definitely a high school read.
December 7, 2025
4,5 també. Molt bo, vull llegir sa tercera part, però encara no l'han traduïda :(
November 25, 2012
The sequel to When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit, The Other Way Round is a darker, more sober book. Anna is now in London, war is hitting home, and she is growing up. Adolescence is not easy, and in the middle of wartime, it is even less.
Kerr's writing remains ineffable. She is precise, concise, and exact. Each word has a weight, a value to it, that creates a deceptively simple and yet intensely acute effect. Anna / Judith is growing up. She is in love, she is out of love, she is hurt, she is happy, she is sad. There's an immediacy to this young woman's story that is defiantly appealing.
But there's also a darkness to this book, in direct contradiction to the idealism present in When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit. Some of this is naturally due to Anna's age, but a lot of this is due to the context. This story is in the middle of London in the middle of the Second World War. We have bombs, we have nights spent tight down in the cellar, and we have empty spaces where houses once stood.
The Other Way Round is a story that shifts the refugee experience into a search for self identity. Anna's not running anymore and now she's trying to find herself. It's also a story about family, as many of Kerr's are. The changing relationship between Anna and her parents is explored sensitively and poignantly and indeed painfully.
If you do not know Kerr's work, her elegant, beautiful, and heartfelt work, then now is the time to become acquainted.
Kerr's writing remains ineffable. She is precise, concise, and exact. Each word has a weight, a value to it, that creates a deceptively simple and yet intensely acute effect. Anna / Judith is growing up. She is in love, she is out of love, she is hurt, she is happy, she is sad. There's an immediacy to this young woman's story that is defiantly appealing.
But there's also a darkness to this book, in direct contradiction to the idealism present in When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit. Some of this is naturally due to Anna's age, but a lot of this is due to the context. This story is in the middle of London in the middle of the Second World War. We have bombs, we have nights spent tight down in the cellar, and we have empty spaces where houses once stood.
The Other Way Round is a story that shifts the refugee experience into a search for self identity. Anna's not running anymore and now she's trying to find herself. It's also a story about family, as many of Kerr's are. The changing relationship between Anna and her parents is explored sensitively and poignantly and indeed painfully.
If you do not know Kerr's work, her elegant, beautiful, and heartfelt work, then now is the time to become acquainted.
December 26, 2018
I read this book right after I finished When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit (Out of the Hitler Time, #1). What I noticed in this book is that Judith Kerr tailored her writing style, the level of sophistication in diction, and character development to her target audience (most likely the same age as the main character). This book takes place few years after the first book has ended, effectively moves the main character, Anna, from one age bracket into the next. In this book, she is between 15-18 years old. Kerr pinpoints what sort of things matter to a teenage girl and incorporates them in her story. This makes Anna both very realistic and very annoying (to me). Kudos to Kerr as a writer!
I think this book is more suitable for reading by oneself rather than reading aloud together, and I wouldn't recommend it to just every teenager. A 2.5 star book for me.
P.S. I tried the third book in the series but couldn't even get pass the second chapter! It felt like a waste of time trying to read about the same character who still has her whiny, skittish, and neurotic demeanor. Perhaps that was designed intentionally by the author as well. After all, growing up as a Jewish refugee during war time and living through The Blitz must have permanent impacts on one’s personalities.
I think this book is more suitable for reading by oneself rather than reading aloud together, and I wouldn't recommend it to just every teenager. A 2.5 star book for me.
P.S. I tried the third book in the series but couldn't even get pass the second chapter! It felt like a waste of time trying to read about the same character who still has her whiny, skittish, and neurotic demeanor. Perhaps that was designed intentionally by the author as well. After all, growing up as a Jewish refugee during war time and living through The Blitz must have permanent impacts on one’s personalities.
March 31, 2016
I really enjoyed reading more into Anna's life, although this one was quite a bit sadder then the first. The reason for this being that Anna was considerably older and, therefore, more aware of what was going on around her and the seriousness of the situation.
And just as a side note, just once would I like to read about an affair with an older married and/or teacher guy that actually works out, despite this not being as bad as it could've been since he obviously felt some remorse for what happened.
And just as a side note, just once would I like to read about an affair with an older married and/or teacher guy that actually works out, despite this not being as bad as it could've been since he obviously felt some remorse for what happened.
April 8, 2014
Not as good as the first one.
I HATED John cotmore (or whatever his last name was). I don't know how Anna could ever fall for such an old, awful person. He's about 40, and she's 18 for crying out loud!
Even from the start, he just seemed to have 'danger' written all over him.
It made my liking for Anna go down.
Also, Anna seemed really immature for her age.
But other than that, a good book.
I HATED John cotmore (or whatever his last name was). I don't know how Anna could ever fall for such an old, awful person. He's about 40, and she's 18 for crying out loud!
Even from the start, he just seemed to have 'danger' written all over him.
It made my liking for Anna go down.
Also, Anna seemed really immature for her age.
But other than that, a good book.
April 11, 2020
When I was tiny The Tiger who Came to Tea was my absolute favourite book in the world. I don't know what thrilled me more - the tiger or Sophie going out for dinner (sausages! chips! ice cream!) in her nightie. A few years later I read When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit and it became instantly one of the iconic books which defines my childhood, read over and over and over again. But it wasn't until many years later as a bookseller shelving in the children's section that I realised the author was one and the same - little Anna had grown up and achieved her dream.
Bombs on Aunt Dainty picks up several years after Pink Rabbit. Anna and her family are refugees (the current Government would probably call them economic migrants), and whilst Max, her oldest brother, feels and acts English, his German nationality an embarrassment and an impediment, and Anna doesn't know quite who she is, living with friends, her own family elsewhere. Meanwhile her parents live in genteel poverty struggling to cope in a world where their language, skills and former status are of no use.
It was fascinating and sobering to read this during the current refugee crisis. In a way it gave me some hope for the children, after all, Anna and Max were resilient throughout all the upheaval, and it's a much needed reminder, with all the current rhetoric, that every single refugee is a human being with a unique story. But Anna's parents never really came to terms with the awful upheaval in their lives and right now there are millions of Papas and Mamas trying to feed their children, get any job possible, unable to believe that there's a world that is safe. Eighty years after Anna fled Germany it seems that in some ways nothing has changed.
Bombs on Aunt Dainty picks up several years after Pink Rabbit. Anna and her family are refugees (the current Government would probably call them economic migrants), and whilst Max, her oldest brother, feels and acts English, his German nationality an embarrassment and an impediment, and Anna doesn't know quite who she is, living with friends, her own family elsewhere. Meanwhile her parents live in genteel poverty struggling to cope in a world where their language, skills and former status are of no use.
It was fascinating and sobering to read this during the current refugee crisis. In a way it gave me some hope for the children, after all, Anna and Max were resilient throughout all the upheaval, and it's a much needed reminder, with all the current rhetoric, that every single refugee is a human being with a unique story. But Anna's parents never really came to terms with the awful upheaval in their lives and right now there are millions of Papas and Mamas trying to feed their children, get any job possible, unable to believe that there's a world that is safe. Eighty years after Anna fled Germany it seems that in some ways nothing has changed.
August 29, 2023
I read an interview with Judith Kerr that said she took the Laura Ingalls Wilder method when she decided to tell her story, and I can see that. This book jumps ahead in time a few years to the beginning of the war and a teenage Anna. She describes living in a hotel with other refugees and the struggles of being German-born for them all (it was so hard to find a job during the war, and her brother was even interned for awhile). You see Anna go to school to learn shorthand and begin art school. You also see her have (what is to me) a narrow escape from being taken advantage of by her older male art teacher, though to her at the time it feels like a blow when he turns his attention elsewhere. For this reason, plus some language, and her parents obtaining suicide pills, this second book in the trilogy would be more appropriate for teens than children. It is, after all, a story of an older teen finding her way during the war.
July 31, 2019
From BBC Radio 4 - Classic serial:
Having been forced to flee the Nazis, Anna and her family have now arrived in London.
Both Anna and her brother Max face the challenges of life as refugees rather better than their parents.
The second book in Judith Kerr's trilogy dramatised by Beaty Rubens.
Anna ... Anna Madeley
Max ... Adam Billington
Mama ... Adjoa Andoh
Papa ... Paul Moriarty
Dainty ... Thelma Ruby
Louise ... Susan Engel
Mrs. Hammond ... Joanna Monro
Mrs. Riley ... Ann Beach
Barbara ... Tracy Wiles
Cotmore ... Gerard McDermott
George ... Harry Livingstone
Otto ... Jack Holden
Sam ... Malcolm Tierney
Director: David Hunter
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01d...
Having been forced to flee the Nazis, Anna and her family have now arrived in London.
Both Anna and her brother Max face the challenges of life as refugees rather better than their parents.
The second book in Judith Kerr's trilogy dramatised by Beaty Rubens.
Anna ... Anna Madeley
Max ... Adam Billington
Mama ... Adjoa Andoh
Papa ... Paul Moriarty
Dainty ... Thelma Ruby
Louise ... Susan Engel
Mrs. Hammond ... Joanna Monro
Mrs. Riley ... Ann Beach
Barbara ... Tracy Wiles
Cotmore ... Gerard McDermott
George ... Harry Livingstone
Otto ... Jack Holden
Sam ... Malcolm Tierney
Director: David Hunter
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01d...
December 10, 2025
Even though the series is intended for middle school and early high school, it is a delight for adult readers too. The author gives so much insight into how it must feel to have fled one's home country and be considered an outsider in their new surroundings. Although the time period of the book is World War II and the Holocaust, the story of immigrants escaping dangerous and oppressive situations is very current.
The sensitive, intelligent, artistic characters, trying to find their way, are well-drawn and vivid. I love these books! I can hardly wait to start the third book in the series.
The sensitive, intelligent, artistic characters, trying to find their way, are well-drawn and vivid. I love these books! I can hardly wait to start the third book in the series.
April 24, 2021
A brilliant sequel, completely different to 'when hitler stole pink rabbit', a more mature take on the grief and fear of WWII through the experiences of an adolescent girl and then young woman. And the callous dumping of Anna by her art teacher was just painful to read, a universally recognisable description of embarrassment and heartbreak!
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