Loïc DauvillierBesprekingen

It is always difficult to find good books about the Holocaust, but especially those for young children. Whether a close or distant relative is a survivor, or whether there are relatives that unfortunately did not survive, or even to inform younger children about what happened to the Jews and others at the hand of the Nazis. Equally important is to tell the story of those righteous gentiles that saved so many Jews and others, hiding them, at extreme danger to themselves and their families, to show children, and all who read this simple but emotional and deep story, that there will always be those who will not let evil win in the hard world.

Beautifully done.

A little girl staying over at her grandmother's house wakes up and finds her grandmother in the living room, sad. Elsa asks her grandmother if it was a nightmare ("you could say that") and says that when she has nightmares, it helps to talk about them. With this invitation, the grandmother shares her history: she was a child in France in the 1940s. She had to wear a Jewish star to school, then stopped going to school altogether; her parents were taken in the night, but hid her, and a neighbor took her in. Members of the Resistance helped them escape to the countryside, where they lived on a farm, and later, they were reunited with the neighbor's husband and with Dounia/Simone's mother - but her father never returned from the camps.

Just as the adults in her life tried to protect her from painful knowledge, adult Dounia never told her son her story. In a touching coda at the end of the book, she tells him that she told Elsa, and he replies, "I know that the reason you never told me was that you wanted to protect me. I don't blame you....I just wanted to let you know that I'm very happy and very proud that you told her."

See also: Catherine's War (YA), Number the Stars

Quotes

I didn't understand how being Jewish made me different from the other girls in my class. (15)

It was hard...but we were together. (23)

p. 53: page is divided into four panels with the gutters making an X shape; each panel shows a different season, to illustrate time passing

I didn't know what a camp was...and no one would explain it to me. They weren't being mean. They wanted to protect me. (63)

This book is incredible. It tells the story of a young girl whose life is derailed by the Holocaust in such a beautifully simple way. Dounia, who lives a simple, yet happy life with her parents is unphased when her father brings home golden star-shaped badges for her family to wear to become "sherrifs". However, in the pages following we see the toll the star takes on her life when it leads to the persecution of her family and neighbors. Dounia must face months alone, not knowing if her parents are alive, with strangers posing as her parents. Dounia demonstrates bravery and eloquence waiting to reunite with them again.

I used this story to teach a unit on the Holocaust and I had several kids want to check it out right away. It is honest without being graphic, and sad with glints of hope.

I think this story is very well done, presenting a young girls' perspective on the holocaust. However, it is somewhat confusing because she never talks about the greater context of the war at all, or the ending of it -- in that sense it is brilliantly true to a child's point of view, but it can be disorienting for older readers.

A child wakes up to crying, and finds her grandmother, Dounia, is the source. The grandmother reveals why she is crying, and the real story begins. Dounia was uprooted as a child, and forced to move from place to place as she was 'hidden' by friends and neighbors for her protection against the Nazis. Dounia's account takes place during WW2, during the Nazi occupation of France. It is a historical fiction book that if read to an appropriate audience, maybe a mature fourth grade, or fifth grade classroom, can help teach about the shortcomings and brutality of mankind without the gory details, while also teaching about perseverance, and kindness.

Dounia reveals to her granddaughter her experience during World War II when her parents were taken away to concentration camps. Neighbors rescued Dounia and disguised her as a young Catholic girl in the French countryside. Author’s Note/Afterword.

A graphic novel adaptation of a 2005 novel, where a Palestinian doctor in Israel is working to save the lives of a suicide bomber's attack, only to discover that his wife was the bomber. After a thorough investigation, he is cleared, only to be attending attacked by neighbors and shunned by friends and colleagues. He decides to seek answers about his wife's secret life, meeting with fellow Muslims, and drawing unwanted attention. Harsh, but probably realistic portrayal of religious and political problems in the Middle East. Nice artwork. Very violent.

A little girl wakes up at night, finds her grandmother crying, and convinces her to tell her why she is sad. The grandmother then tells of her own childhood that is disrupted by the Nazi occupation of Paris when Dounia is forced to wear a yellow Star of David, and live with neighbors and sheltered in the countryside by the Resistance until her mother returns from the camps. It is a graphic novel for children to introduce racism and glorify the French people who helped many young French Jews to survive in a hateful era of persecution. 3.5 stars.

I read this for LIBR 465. Such a good (and fast) read! I saw a different perspective of how people had lived back then.

Recommended Ages: Gr. 3-5

Plot Summary: Dounia's life changes when her dad tells her they have to be sheriffs and wear a yellow star. Suddenly her friends and teachers ignore her or are rude to her. One day, her parents tell her frantically to stay in the bottom of their armoire and not to come out until someone comes to get them. She is scared but stays in there for a very long time. When her neighbor gets her, her parents are gone. She stays with the neighbor for a bit until they try to sneak her out to the countryside. When a neighbor spots her and screams about her identity, the family she's been staying with is in deep danger too. Thankfully, the woman is able to bring the girl to the countryside where they live their new identity in hiding. Worried about her parents and about the woman's husband who distracted the police so they could escape, they have a hard time adjusting to the new location. Eventually they fall into a routine although they miss their loved ones terribly. Will they ever see them again?

Setting: France

Characters:

Recurring Themes: Holocaust, survival, kindness, hiding, secret identity,

Controversial Issues:

Personal Thoughts: I'm still not sure how I feel about this book. While I appreciate that it doesn't have the gory details about the Holocaust while still capturing the emotion of being separated from family and hiding from the Nazis (although I don't believe it names them as such), it doesn't truly capture what it was like to live in that time period. So is it better to introduce the idea to kids younger, or wait until they are able to hear the whole story? I will say the image of Dounia's mother returning from the concentration camp is haunting with her deep bags, protruding bones, and short hair.

Genre: historical fiction, graphic novel

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I had mixed feelings about this book after reading it. I liked the book because of the plot. Hidden: A Child's Story of the Holocaust is a graphic historical fiction story about a grandmother telling her granddaughter about her survival experience during WWII. One day Dounia’s father tells her that they were going to become a family of sheriffs, in which they had to wear a yellow star sewn onto their clothes. Ever since she started wearing that star things changed rapidly. Her parents hid her and told her not to move or make a sound until someone came to help her. Dounia had to live with people she didn’t know, changed her name and moved from her hometown. For example, “We climbed into a big cabinet, and my family name was changed once again. I would now be Simone Pericard. I had to act as if Mrs. Pericard were my mother. It was very hard for me. I loved her very much, but I didn’t want to call her Mommy. She wasn’t my mommy. But I did it. I understood that it was to protect me.” But I didn’t like the illustrations. The story was written as a flashback and since it’s also a graphic novel, I had to reread certain parts. The illustrations had many tunes of greys, black, and blue. It was kind of hard to notice right away when the story was interrupted by the granddaughter and when the grandmother continued with her story. For example, Dounia’s granddaughter asked, “What about Isaac?” “His parents had some money. They left their apartment very quickly and took a boat for the United States. I never saw Isaac again.” That is the dialogue, but the illustrations show a man being taken by the police. Dounia and her father crossing the street and the man being beaten. The main purpose of this story was to remember those who survived the Holocaust and those who died.

The book hidden demonstrated well illustration that allows the reader to understand what is happening in the story. The author did a great job describing the plot in the story through the characters. As I read the story, I had mixed feelings and at times felt like I was in the story as well. "Hidden," is a good book to read to students who are in 1st-5th grade because its about a girl and how she survived the holocaust. The book is displayed as a graphic comic, this is nice because students who are in the younger grade will get an understanding on how people lived through the time of the holocaust. The comic picture shows a dull, sad coloring to reflect the story and how it's a sad story. Overall, I recommend the story to help young readers understand the truth of the holocaust and learn a bit from it.

Une bande dessinée très bien faite sur un sujet extrêmement complexe à traiter. Le titre ne le dit pas tout à fait, mais le dessin de la couverture ne laisse pas de place au doute. Il est ici question d’une enfant juive pendant la seconde guerre mondiale. Echappant par miracle à une rafle qui lui enlève ses parents, elle est recueillie par des gens simples et biens qui l’emmènent se cacher à la campagne. Dans cette bande dessinée de taille standard, on voit l’avant avec les premières lois anti-Juifs, le pendant et l’après avec les familles qui se retrouvent, ou ne se retrouvent pas. L’auteur ne s’appesantit donc sur aucun sujet et il ne faut pas, en tant qu’adulte, s’attendre à apprendre quelque chose sur ces temps troublés.
Mais cette bande dessinée est, je pense, avant tout faite pour les enfants (de plus de 10 ans, certains dessins pouvant être très déstabilisants), et, pour ce public, elle est très bien faite car elle montre la réalité simple et choquante de ce qu’a pu être cette période avec la détérioration du climat social et, chose plus rarement traitée, les conséquences que cela a laissées dans la vie des rescapés : le difficile retour à la réalité, les silences dans les familles…
Les dessins sont simples, avec des personnages à grosse tête qui permettent une certaine distanciation probablement nécessaire pour les lecteurs enfants, mais une image en pleine page très difficile à soutenir, celle de la mère revenant des camps de concentration, me fait penser que, dans tous les cas, la présence d’un adulte est probablement nécessaire. Pas pour la lecture, mais plutôt pour en parler après, juste être là pour écouter les émotions ou les ressentis, et pour répondre à d’éventuelles questions. Mon M’ni Raton a lu cette bande dessinée, plusieurs mois avant que je ne l’emprunte à mon tour à la bibliothèque. Certes, elle a presque 12 ans, mais cette présence a été nécessaire, et maintenant que j’ai lu ce livre à mon tour, je comprends pourquoi.
C’est donc un livre comme il en existe peu, qui fait toucher aux enfants l’indicible, qui ne cache pas la laideur que revêt parfois le monde, qui ne promet pas que tout se finit toujours bien, et qui fait cela à hauteur d’enfant, avec toute l’attention nécessaire pour que tout cela reste entendable. Un très beau travail, et une bande dessinée que je ne peux que recommander aux adultes en général, et aux adultes qui veulent permettre aux enfants d’une dizaine d’années ou plus d’aborder ces questions complexes qui sont nécessaire et qui font grandir.

When we talk about the nature of the evil and the holocaust there is a myriad amaount of literature about it and children's literature as well, but nothing as quite unique as "Hidden". The story begins with young Elsa as she is awoken from a nights sleep to find her grandmother, oringinally Dounia, who was crying. Elsa sits and asks her why she cries and Dounia gathers the courage to tell her story as a little girl escaping with her parents during the nazi occupation of France. The first thing you realize is the content does not hold back, and it wears everything on its sleeve to bare which i loved about the book. In such human terms you feel what it would have been like to be discriminated against in school at the time, and left alone so others could take care of you. You realized how fast it occured. I would read this to slightly older chidlren 1-5 grade, but for the most part i could not get through it without crying. Even though Dounia has something left at the end to find peace with, like so many others she was left alone. It is very prescient to what is happening around us, with ultra nationalism spouting its evil head,½

Hidden: A Child's Story of the Holocaust is written by Loic Dauviller and illustrated by Marc Lizano. This historical fiction graphic novel is intended for upper elementary schoolers and middle schoolers. Dauviller manages to write about a heavy topic in a gentle and poetic way. A grandmother tells her granddaughter about her experiences in World War II. She explains that after her parents were sent to concentration camps, she was moved from house to house to hide from the Nazis. I would include this book in a classroom, but I would have to assess whether students were mature enough to handle the content. With careful considerations, I would recommend this graphic novel. If used appropriately, Hidden can supplement or even replace a textbook to learn about the Holocaust.

This book us about the journey of a little girl thought the Holocaust. It talks about her fears as well as her parents during this time. It tells things that actually happened during this time. This would be a great read for second graders when talking of history and even for higher grades when talking about World War 2.

Reminiscent of Maus and the story of Anne Frank, even Life Is Beautiful, hidden is a simpler tale in the telling and while less graphic in its depiction of violence and physical trauma, not sugarcoated or whitewashed.

Another title picked up from Sulzer for W, unread and unfamiliar but enticing book jacket. Read through this one before offering it to W, and thought it mature for him, but passed on to R. When W picked it up on his own once she was done, I cautioned it was perhaps not for him, only for both he & R to question me. I relented.

W had to go to bed before finishing, uncertain if he returned to it afterward.

I like that it tells the story of anti semitism after world war 2. I loved the drawings and the characters and it reminds me of the movie called A Long Long Holiday. - Max, 7 years old

Only 80 pages, but it made me cry.

A gem of a book. My Jewish daughter is starting to explore the history of WWII and the Holocaust. This was an excellent, gentle, book on that subject. It presents an excellent opportunity to open up a dialogue on how a society can open itself up to ignorance and fear, and the importance of standing up against wrongful actions.

My 10 year old son picked this graphic novel up at the library and wanted me to read it so we could discuss. This is a very well done recounting of the Holocaust from a child’s POV. I was impressed with how well the feel of the era was portrayed while keeping things at a level that children will understand.

As a parent some of the scenes in this were especially touching. Watching as Dounia’s parents tried to make wearing the Star of David a “fun” thing for their daughter and make her feel special even as the world around them was descending into violence. It was sad how even all their efforts couldn’t protect them from the atrocities of that time.

Parts of this book are very sad, but in the end the tone ends up being hopeful. My son really liked it because he said he felt like he understood a lot better how things went then. He mentioned he had never read an account of the Holocaust from a Jewish kid’s point of view and this really brought home to him how scary and awful the Holocaust was.

My son has actually read through this a few more times, he told me he is trying to understand why people would do the types of things that happened in the Holocaust. This book is a great discussion point of an era in history that needs to be discussed with kids so that nothing like that ever happens again. It’s presented in a way that is approachable.

Additionally the graphic novel itself is well put together. The illustrations are well done and the story is easy to follow. The characters are engaging and easy to relate to.

Overall I would highly recommend this graphic novel. It is a very well done accounting of the Holocaust from a Jewish child’s point of view. This is something every parent should talk to their children about and this is a great way to do that. Just be prepared for lots of questions and remember parts of it are sad.½

This is a great book to introduce when transitioning into the topic of the holocaust and all of its horrific event. This book captures the emotional effect of the toll of not knowing what the next moment would hold. This book will make for a great way of sparking the interest of readers into becoming knowledgeable of the devastation and difficult during the coarse of the holocaust.½

I'm thrilled to have found this. I'm definitely going to share this with my sons when they are old enough.

This is just beautiful. Excellent.