Girl
My Childhood and the Second World War
Will be published approx. on 29. August 2016
Book
Hardback
280 pages
978-0-253-02228-8 (ISBN)
Description
Alona Frankel was just two years old when Germany invaded Poland. After a Polish carpenter agreed to hide her parents but not her, Alona's parents desperately handed her over to a greedy woman who agreed to hide her only as long as they continued to send money. Isolated from her parents and living among pigs, horses, mice, and lice, Alona taught herself to read and drew on scraps of paper. The woman would send these drawings to Alona's parents as proof that Alona was still alive. In time, the money ran out and Alona was tossed into her parents' hiding place, at this point barely recognizing them. After Poland's liberation, Alona's mother was admitted to a terminal hospital and Alona handed over to a wealthy, arrogant family of Jewish survivors who eventually cast her off to an orphanage. Despite these daily horrors and dangers surrounding her, Alona's imagination could not be restrained. A powerful testament to the resilience of the human spirit, Girl is the story of a young girl's self-preservation through a horrible war and its aftermath. Faithful to the perspective of the heroine herself, Frankel, now a world renowned children's author and illustrator, reveals a little girl full of life in a terrible, evil world.
Reviews / Votes
An impressionistic memoir of a Polish Jewish girl's survival hiding as a Gentile in Nazi-occupied Poland. What lifts this beautifully understated narrative above many other admirable efforts are Frankel's gift for visceral detail and trained eye as a novelist. . . A truly moving and bravely rendered memoir.(Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)) Reading Girl is an unforgettable experience. The horror of the Holocaust-"the heavy, viscous fear of death"-seeps into every page. Yet, what remains by the book's end isn't the horror of human evil but the good of the human heart. It's young Frankel as a girl who befriends rats and mice while in hiding, who celebrates the miracle of life in unspeakable conditions. It's a little girl in hiding who ultimately finds "beauty that needs nothing else."
(ForeWord Reviews) One of the qualities that makes this book so remarkable is its author's honesty, her remembrance of terrible things past which, despite everything, did not destroy her.
(The Washington Times) Stands out for its powerful writing and the author's resilience. . . . [Frankel] writes with sensitivity and unforgettable detail
(The Jewish Week) Frankel tells her story simply and with wry grace.
(Jewish Book Council) Alona Frankel's memoir, described as being "faithful to the perspective of her younger self," is more mannered and even, at times, poetic.
(Times Literary Supplement)
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Bloomington, IN
United States
Product notice
Paper over boards
Illustrations
50 color and b/w illus. - 50 Halftones, color
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 157 mm
Thickness: 23 mm
Weight
544 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-253-02228-8 (9780253022288)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
11/2018
Indiana University Press
€18.18
Available for download
Person
Alona Frankel was born in Krakow, Poland, in June of 1937. After surviving World War II, she immigrated to Israel in 1949. Alona has written and illustrated over 50 children's books, including the international best seller Once Upon a Potty. Her books have won numerous prizes, including several Parents' Choice awards.