no pretty pictures :: essays research papers

"Nominated for a 1998 National Book Award for Young Peoples Literature, No Pretty Pictures A Child of War is Anita Lobels gripping narration of surviving the Holocaust. A Caldecott-winning illustrator of such delightful picture books as On Market Street, it is difficult to believe Lobel endured the horrific childhood she did. From years 5 to age 10, Lobel spent what are supposed to be carefree years hiding from the Nazis, protecting her younger brother, being captured and marched from camp to camp, and surviving nably dehumanizing conditions. A wonderful story by any measure, Lobels memoir is all the more haunting as told from the first-person, childs-eye view. Her girlhood voice tells it alike it is, without irony or even complete understanding, but with matter-of-fact honesty and astonishing attention to detail. She carves vivid, enduring images into readers minds. On hiding in the attic of the ghetto "We were always told to be very quiet. The whispers of the trapped grown-ups sounded like the noise of insects rubbing their legs together." On being discovered while hiding in a convent "They lined us up facing the wall. I looked at the dark red bricks in front of me and waited for the shots. When the shouting continued and the shots didnt come, I noticed my breath hanging in thin puffs in the air." On exhausting not to draw the attention of the Nazis "I wanted to shrink away. To fold into a small invisible thing that had no detectable smell. No breath. No flesh. No sound."It is a miracle that Lobel and her brother survived on their own in this world that any adult would find unbearable. Indeed, and appropriately, there are no pretty pictures here, and adults choosing to appoint this story with younger readers should make themselves readily available for explanations and comforting words. (The camps are full of excrement and death, all faithfully recorded in direct, unsparing language.) entirely this is a story that must be told, from the shocking beginning when a young girl watches the Nazis march into Krakow, to the final words of Lobels epilogue "My life has been good. I want more." (Ages 10 to 16) --Brangien Davis From Booklist Gr. 6-12. The truth of the childs viewpoint is the strength of this Holocaust survivor story, told with physical immediacy and no "pride of victimhood." Lobels ebullient, gorgeously colored illustrated books--from the Caldecott discover Book On Market Street (1982) to Toads and Diamonds (1996)--give no hint of her dark, terrifying childhood.