The Endless Steppe

The Endless Steppe by Esther Hautzig

Exiled to Siberia. After several weeks on a train, “enemies” of the Russian state have been dropped off to be forgotten in this nearly empty five million square miles for four hundred years. Ten-year old Esther Rudomin’s parents and grandparents are accused of being capitalists by the occupying Russians in 1941. They are yanked from their life of luxury and privilege in Vilna, Poland one morning and thrown into cattle cars with nothing but what they can carry. They end up being “lucky” for they are Jewish and the Germans who invade soon after did not practice the art of exile.

Esther spends the next five years in Rubtsvosk, Siberia. Extreme cold, constant hunger, filth, and fear are her constant companions. Yet she can still fret, like any young adolescent, about fitting in with her peers to the point that she will sacrifice food if it means she will belong. She creates, through pure force of will, the early teen years that she desires and when it is time to leave, she experiences the separation anxiety any teen feels when they must leave the first world they have created for themselves.

This is a story of resilience, pride, and determination, an intimate portrait of one slice of a significant time in relatively recent history. Girls from about fifth grade up to early high school will appreciate this story.

Gaby

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, by John Boyne

Much is missing in this story told from the perspective of a nine-year-old boy whose father is the Kommandant of Auschwitz. I was not even sure if my high or middle school students would recognize what it was about.  They do recognize the setting and they do find the cheery voice of the child wending his way through unmistakably dark times a compelling read. The missing specifics make this story read like a folk tale, without time and place,  with an edge of unreality, and with completely familiar human truths.

A boy’s world consists of his imagination, his friendships, his ongoing struggle to make sense of the adult world that swirls around him. This boy, Bruno, appears at first glance to be unduly naive.  But  he is not naive; the belief that comfort can exist alongside absolute cruelty is naive. That  perspective is like a knife cutting through the twisted intentions of the severely misguided adults, laying bare the only truth: no safe haven exists unless it exists for all.

Even with its lack of  factual detail, this book is clearly about the Holocaust. While strong readers as young as eight could read this book, parents may want to decide when their child is ready for this information and might want to read it with their child. Middle and high school kids should be fine with it. In fact, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is one of those books clearly written for all ages of readers.

Gaby Chapman