Bound To Stay Bound

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Booklist - 03/01/2014 Worried that her grandmother has had a nightmare, a young girl offers to listen to the story, hoping to ease her grandmother’s mind. And for the first time since her own childhood, the grandmother opens up about her life during WWII, the star she had to wear, the disappearance of her parents, and being sent to the country where she had to lie about her name and her beliefs. Every year, more stories set during the Holocaust are released, many for children, and this one is particularly well done. Dauvillier doesn’t sugarcoat the horrors of the Holocaust; instead, he shares them from the perspective of a girl young enough to not quite understand the true scope of the atrocities. Set in occupied France, the story told is honest and direct, and each scene is revealed with care. The frankness of the storytelling is tempered by appealing cartoonlike illustrations that complement the story and add a layer of emotion not found in the narration. A Holocaust experience told as a bedtime story? It sounds crazy, but here it works. - Copyright 2014 Booklist.

School Library Journal - 03/01/2014 Gr 3–6—Elsa and her grandmother Dounia can't fall asleep one night, and the little girl begs the older woman to share the reason for her sadness. Dounia recounts her experience as a Jewish child in Nazi-occupied Paris in 1942. Heartbreaking incidents, such as being ostracized by a teacher and former friends or having to don a yellow a star, are told from a child's perspective, filled with confusion and innocence. Eventually, the little girl is hidden under a panel in her family's wardrobe as police vandalize her home and arrest her parents. Neighbors, the Pericards, rescue Dounia and adopt her while they try to locate her mother and father, who have been transferred to a concentration camp. Dauvillier doesn't shy away from the brutal truth in this portrayal of the Holocaust. Interspersed with Dounia's flashbacks are present-day moments of dialogue between the narrator and Elsa, which are depicted in brown and tan hues. Elsa asks questions and offers comments that young readers might also be grappling with while reading this tale. Lizano's stylized illustrations depict characters with oversize heads, reminiscent of "Peanuts" comics, giving this difficult subject an age-appropriate touch. The subdued palette of blues and greens match the story's tone, and the plethora of images highlighting meals, country scenes, and family time places more emphasis on the people who helped one another during this terrible period than on the heinous acts committed. The final image, one of familial love and peace, will pull heartstrings. Pair this poignant graphic novel with Lois Lowry's Number the Stars (Houghton Mifflin, 1989).Shelley Diaz, School Library Journal - Copyright 2014 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.

Bulletin for the Center... - 05/01/2014 In this graphic novel imported from France, little Elsa gets out of bed in the middle of the night and hears Grandma crying. Assuming bad dreams have caused her grief, Elsa prompts her grandmother, “You know, when I have a nightmare, I tell Mommy about it and that makes me feel better.” And so Grandma, for the first time, revisits aloud her childhood experience during the Holocaust, from her misunderstanding of the “sheriff’s badge” sewn onto her clothes and her sudden segregation from school activities, to the night her father hid her in a wardrobe during a police raid, through her new life under a false identity, protected by kind neighbors who whisked her off to the relative security of a farm while awaiting news of her parents. The framing story is both affecting and effective, respecting Grandma’s silence over the years while quietly celebrating her triumph over the burden of memory. Dauvillier’s entire cast is portrayed as doll-like figures, childlike and unintimidating; although the style makes the mustached men and violent police seem incongruous in their round-headed, cartoon innocence, it ultimately shifts the reader out of Grandma’s perilously threatened point of view and into that of Elsa, who struggles to comprehend the unimaginable tale her beloved grandmother is telling. Tidy frames delineated by consistent white gutters make this accessible to GN newbies, and the dusky palette, which segues to warm golden tones as Grandma and Elsa snuggle together through the painful story, underscores the darkness of the period without sacrificing visual clarity. This study in the confrontation of memory will lay the groundwork for readers who will later grapple with Art Spiegelman’s gold standard of GN survivor stories, Maus. EB - Copyright 2014 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois.

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