same as the previous one in regards to reading this way too young as a kid, though I think a lot of it went over my head then. I got so emotional hearing Piri call her foster parents mother and father. What she went thru is unimaginable to me and her finding that love again was very touching. ( )

Aranka was born in Czechoslovakia. She and her family were sent to Auschwitz concentration camp, where she and her sister Iboya were separated from the rest of their family. They were then sent to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp before being liberated in April 1945. Both girls were sent to Sweden to recover and Aranka lived for a few years with a family there before immigrating with her sister to America.

This is the second book in Aranka's trilogy. I can't remember why I decided to start in the middle, but I enjoyed the read. It reminded me of what Anne Frank's diary might be like if she had survived the camp she was sent to. Of course, being a teen, it was mostly about the boys she was interested in and her feelings for them. Also, her angst at becoming attached to her Swedish family and having to leave them for America. ( )

A great portrayal of life of a teen girl in the immediate years after being freed from Bergen-Belsen Nazi concentration camp. Piri, a Hungarian Jew, was transported to Sweden as she needed medical care for her health problems caused by the prison years. She is also very behind in school & has problems focusing on learning when she is expected to attend Swedish schools. The language barrier must have been tremendous, but we don't really read how she picked up Swedish. Luckily her older sister is still with her to help her. We feel their sorrow each time they hear what happened to other family or community members. They need to plan what they want for their future: go with friends to start a new Israel, find other relatives in America to live with, or develop relationships with Swedes--which would mean very little contact with their Jewish heritage.
At one point in this book I felt that too much of what Piri was talking with friends about was typical teenage focus on boy-girl relations, and was struck by the sentence later in the book where she criticizes some new Swedish friends "They played kissing games and acted...well, childlike. I know they are older than I, but the biggest problem in their lives is school and the most important thing is dating." Well, I guess for a Young Adult novel, this focus is important to keep reader's interest, and, to be fair, we do get good insight into the other struggles, worries, and concerns she has.
I would recommend this for any Young Adult. I have not read the prequel. ( )

This book is interesting in that it gives readers a view into what life was like for surviovors after the War. However, it does little to answer questions about Piri's family, (I suppose that many never got answers), and it is not nearly as compelling as the first book, UPON the HEAD of GOAT. It is difficult to sort out the characters and how Piri knows many of them.

This is listed as a children's book, but I am more comfortable classifying it as a Young Adult book, due to the extensive coverage of Piri's romantic entanglements. ( )