The Night Crossing

Author: Karen Ackerman
Publisher: Random House Inc.
Copyright: 1994
Genre: Historical Fiction
Pages: 56
Reading Level: Ages 7 to 9 (Barnes and Noble)
Summary: In this fictional story based on the happenings of world war two, Clara is a young, Jewish girl living in Austria. Her family, including her father, mother, and a sister Marta, are planning to make a "night crossing" to escape to Switzerland to avoid being caught by the Nazis. Clara's father collects all of the family's valuables to sell in order to bribe people to help them along the way. He is about to take the family's silver candlesticks but Clara's mother tells him that those are the one thing she will never give up. The candlesticks have been passed down through generations of her family and are used to celebrate the Sabbath and other religious holidays for their family. They hide the candlesticks in Marta's petticoat for the journey but sometimes they make clanging sounds. Clara has two dolls that her grandmother gave her when she was young. Her grandmother told her that she took them with her on her own night crossing when she was a young girl. The dolls are very comforting to Clara so she takes them with her on her own night crossing. When they come to the border of Switzerland, the Nazis are patrolling it and Clara's father is afraid the candlesticks will clang in Marta's petticoat. So, they put them in a new hiding place by sewing them inside of Clara's dolls and then restuffing them. Clara has to carry them over the border to avoid suspicion. The family is pretending that they were visiting cousins in Austria. When one of the Nazis asks Clara where they are going she tells him they are going home. To try and catch her in a lie or get her to give something away he asks her about her dolls. Clara cleverly tells him that they are just her old dolls and that she has nicer ones at home but that her mother wouldn't let her bring them on their trip because they might have gotten ruined. The Nazis let them through with the fake paperwork her father bought and the family reaches safety in Switzerland and from then on they lay out the dolls on a chair for each Sabbath when they use the candlesticks.
Who would you recommend this book to? This book would be excellent for young girls. It's a good book to help them learn a little bit about the Holocaust. I think I would mostly recommend it to girls because I think they would relate better to the character than the boys would.
Potential problems or conflicts: I didn't see any problems or conflicts that would arise from this book.
My reaction: I enjoyed this book. It was a good one to get a glimpse of what some of the Jews and other people went through to keep their families safe during World War II. Like I said before, I think that the character is one that little girls could really relate to. I think this would be a great book for kids to read.