Starred Review ALA Booklist (Sat Sep 01 00:00:00 CDT 2007)

Starred Review With all the books about children in the Holocaust, almost nothing has been written about the many young people selected for the Lebensborn program, which repatriated non-German children who had Aryan features and placed them with German families. Drawing on research with survivors of the small town of Lidice, Czechoslovakia, this first novel tells the story through the fictionalized narrative of blonde, blue-eyed Milada, 11 in 1942, when the Nazis tear her family apart. Though she tries to hold on to who she is, she's renamed Eva;taught German; adopted by a wealthy German family, headed by the commandant of a nearby concentration camp; and raised as a good German girl, with a loving mother and sister. There's some contrivance: the constant metaphor of the stars that help her find her way home is a bit much, as is the motif of her grandmother's pin, which Milada/Eva holds dear as a reminder of her other life. But the ending isn't saccharine in the least; the outcome is not only honest about lost family and culture but also about the heartbreaking parting with an adoptive parent and sibling.

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

German war crimes are the basis for this historical novel, Wolf's first, more noteworthy for its subject matter than for its execution. In 1942, in the small Czech town of Lidice, 11-year-old Milada has just finished celebrating her birthday when soldiers march into town in the middle of the night and order everyone from their homes. Separated from the men and boys, held for three days in another town, Milada and selected other children undergo a series of examinations; two of them, including Milada, are eventually transported to a special school where they are given German names and educated as proper German girls, eventually to be adopted by good Nazi families (Wolf models this part of the story on the Lebensborn program). Through all her ordeals, which grow to include secret knowledge of Czech prisoners held in the Ravensbrück concentration camp, Milada struggles to maintain her identity, hiding the star-shaped garnet pin her grandmother, Babichka, pressed into her palm that last night in Lidice (""""Remember who you are, Milada. Remember where you are from. Always,"""" Babichka tells her with the prescience of old age). The drama of the events overshadows the serviceable characterizations, and because neither the razing of Lidice, explained in an endnote, nor the Lebensborn program will be familiar to the target audience, the history propels readers forward where the storytelling does not. Ages 10-14.(July)

Kirkus Reviews

Nazis came to Milada's village in Czechoslovakia and tore families apart. The men and older boys were shot, Milada found out later, and the women were sent to the Ravensbruck concentration camp near Berlin. But Milada's family is not Jewish, and Milada's fate is to be transported to Poland and later to Germany to be "Germanized," as part of the Lebensborn program of kidnapping non-Jewish, non-German children with blonde hair and blue eyes and retraining them to become good Germans. Given a new name, trained in the German language and adopted by a German family, Milada—now Eva—struggles to retain her true identity. This little-known side of the Nazi era will fascinate young readers. Milada is a well-drawn character who resists "repatriation" and dreams of returning home. An important addition to the Holocaust curriculum. (author's note) (Fiction. 10-14)

Voice of Youth Advocates

From the dramatic and eye-catching cover to the gripping story within, this novel transports readers to a not-so-distant time just after the Nazis have taken over the former Czechoslovakia. The story is based on true events that will probably not be familiar even to those who have studied World War II, but the little-known focus does not detract from the drama and in fact compels the reader to discover the resolution. Milada is a girl on the verge of adolescence, living a contented life in the small village of Lidice, when Nazi soldiers come in the night to take her and her family away to a work camp. The women and children are separated from the men, who are never seen in the story again. Because of their blonde hair and blue eyes, Milada and another girl from her village are then taken away to be turned into German girls and adopted out to further the Aryan race. They receive new names, are forced to learn German, and are told repeatedly that their families were killed by Allied bombers. The other girl quickly assimilates and actually seems to embrace her new identity, but Milada, now Eva, tries desperately to hang on to her Czech heritage. Although written in a clear, readable style, the novel does not sugarcoat the more horrific aspects of the Nazi regime. Milada (Eva) ends up living with a family near Ravensbr³ck, where she is sickened to learn the source of the smell coming from the smokestacks in the camp. The machinations of the Nazi officials to turn out good little Aryan children for the betterment of the human race sometimes seem surreal and farcical, but a very effective and informative author's note at the end of the book firmly plants the situation in factual reality. This novel adds a new and interesting point of view to the genre of books written about this significant period in recent human history.-Kathy Starks.

School Library Journal Starred Review

Gr 5-8-When resistance fighters assassinated the highest ranking Nazi officer in Czechoslovakia, Hitler sought revenge on the small village of Lidice. All 173 men and teenage boys were executed while the women were sent to the Ravensbruck concentration camp. Ten Lidice children, who exemplified Aryan traits, were selected for "Germanization." They were sent to Lebensborn training centers, forced to speak only German, given new names, and indoctrinated into the Nazi ideology. They were then adopted by German families. The rest of the children of Lidice were gassed. Based on extensive research and interviews with survivors, Wolf tells the heart-wrenching story of the fictional Milada, who is sent to a Lebensborn center and adopted by the commandant of Ravensbruck. Readers are quickly immersed into her character, gaining a painful understanding of her intense struggle to hold onto her true self and identity. Students who have read stories of Jewish persecution and survival during the Holocaust will be enlightened by this portrait of how Hitler's Final Solution affected these innocent children. This amazing, eye-opening story, masterfully written, is an essential part of World War II literature and belongs on the shelves of every library.-Rachel Kamin, Temple Israel Libraries & Media Center, West Bloomfield, MI Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.