Yellow Star

Yellow Star
By: Jennifer Roy
Marshall Covendish 2006

Yellow Star follows the story of a girl named Sylvia and her family in the Lodz ghetto during WWII. Sylvia and her family are a Jewish Family living in Poland, but are soon taken out because of the Germans and forced to live in a cramped ghetto called Lodz. In the ghetto there is no heat, hardly any food or water, and is extremely dangerous to live in. The Jewish people that live there are in constant terror of being shot just because they looked at a guard the wrong way. Sylvia is only about 5 years old at the start of the book and can not do much to help her family. Since she doesn't work she plays dolls with some of her friends in the ghetto. Life is hard but they get through it, however, as each winter comes more and more people die. Eventually, the trains come and Jewish people are squished like sardines into freight cars to be sent off to the concentration camps. Sylvia and her family are lucky to not have been sent off, but thousands of families are taken in hopes of a better life because they believe something will get better if they leave. The Nazis decide that there shall be no more children in the ghetto and begin searching for them and "taking them to a better place." Thanks to her fathers cleverness Sylvia is not taken away but must be hidden for a very long time. She basically must act as if she doesn't exist. There are eventually only about 800 people left in the ghetto that are left as workers and Sylvia's family sneaks into the group of workers instead of being sent off to concentration camps. Again, the children must be hidden, but they are soon found out by the Nazis. After a lot of bravery and hope the Germans loose the war and the Jewish people of Lodz are saved. Sylvia's story will go down in infamy as one of the 12 children to survive the ghetto, and saving her people.

This was such a heart touching book, and the poetry aspect of it really added to its style. I feel like the poetry of the book really made it flow so much nicer and we got an idea of Sylvia's simple mind, but complex life. It was really great to read something that gave a different perspective of the Jewish people in the ghettos instead of the usual Number the Stars  and Anne Frank. I think what I really loved about the book was that I kept on thinking it was a fictional story for some reason, but then I had to keep reminding my self that this actual happened to some one. Sylvia was such a brave little girl, and she really gave me inspiration. I felt so badly for her as she had to hide and be invisible for so long. She had so much willpower, and hope it was just remarkable. Her father was probably my favorite person in the book because he was extremely clever and it was like him the Jewish people needed to survive. This book really makes you appreciate your family and lets people see that a family can get through anything together especially if they stick together. One of the most heart wrenching moments of this book was when the woman had to pick one of her children to be taken away. I have no idea how a woman could get through having to pick one of her children to be taken away by Nazis and probably will never see him again. Seeing the struggles of the Jewish people through Sylvia's eyes was so interesting because she was just a very young child that did not know much about the world. She knew bad things were happening around her, but she always had hope. At such a young age she learned how valuable life is. The scene where all the children are dragged out of the cellar almost made me cry because it was amazing to see how this little 10 year old was just so happy she was alive, and how close she was to not. The scenes in this book are so vivid, and I think it would be great for a classroom to read this book and see how badly the Jewish people had it and lengths they took to stay alive. This would be wonderful even for 4th or possibly 3rd graders because it is a simple read, and it is relatable since she is so young. They can really learn a lot of history through this small book.