School Library Journal (Tue May 01 00:00:00 CDT 2018)

Gr 2-5 Surviving the Shoah was sometimes a matter of quick wits or inexplicable good luck. Often, as in this story, it was a combination. Though picture books on this subject are difficult for young readers, this one, written by cousins who are the daughters of the protagonists, has the advantage of a happy ending. Honoring the promise she has made to their parents, Toby helps Rachel to survive in Auschwitz until the younger girl falls ill and they are separated. Rescuing Rachel from a barracks where sick inmates are housed before execution requires rapid planning, improvisation, and courage. Escaping her own execution in retaliation for violating the rules was a matter of a Nazi guard's unexpected humanity. Some aspects of the prose are questionably authentic. Cardinal has illustrated the book in grays and browns, digitally collaging photos onto her figures in ways that distort proportions and perspectives to disorienting, nightmarish effect. Readers will appreciate the photographs of the sisters as adults in the concluding pages. VERDICT Consider for collections in need of brief historical fiction about the Holocaust. Miriam Lang Budin, Chappaqua Library, NY Beginning Readers

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

Sisters Rachel and Toby haven-t seen their parents since Nazi soldiers broke their family apart, but they cherish and support each other as they endure life in Auschwitz. They fiercely guard three gold coins, hidden in a shoe polish tin, that their father gave them before they parted. When Rachel falls ill, Toby must finally put the coins to use to bribe a guard and rescue her sister. Based on family history, this picture book for older readers tells a riveting survival story that ends on a note of hope: the sisters who inspired the book grew up to become the authors- mothers. With tightly paced scenes and tense dialogue, Zvi and Wolfe create a terrifying sense of immediacy that is extended in the photorealistic digital collages, which focus on faces, from the shouting guards and snarling dogs to the determined sisters. An unusual, powerful look at the horrors of life in the camps and the courage and resilience of those who survived. Ages 7-10. (Apr.)

ALA Booklist (Sun Apr 01 00:00:00 CDT 2018)

This picture-book account of perseverance in the face of staggering adversity at Auschwitz is related by cousins, daughters of two survivor sisters who lived it and passed it on to them. While fictionalized, this third-person tale of Toby and Rachel, who protect each other and the promise they made to their mother to stay together, brings to life the horror that so many truly experienced during WWII. The fear, labor, defiance, and love are illustrated with full-page pictures that blend photos and drawings in grays, browns, and blues to express terror and hope, and the vicious dogs and human figures with oversize heads, including rarely referenced female guards, are particularly effective and affecting. The sisters' use of their only worldly goods e few gold coins bequeathed to them by their lost parents bribe Nazis into allowing them to reunite with each other when one of them falls ill is a stunning story, and the extensive use of dialogue adds to the impact.

Starred Review for Kirkus Reviews

Rachel and Toby promised their parents that they would always stay together.When the Nazis took away all the Jewish adults, their father managed to slip Toby a tin box with three gold coins hidden in shoe polish, urging them, "above all, stay together." The sisters never saw their parents again. In Auschwitz they were assigned to a barracks with other young girls. Each day they had to build a wall of heavy stones only to take it down the following day, with the process repeating endlessly. Weakness led to disappearance and death. When Rachel became ill, she was taken away, and Toby knew she had to bring her back before she could be killed. She sneaked out, bribed a prisoner-guard with the precious gold coins, and spirited Rachel back to their own barracks. Toby was whipped for her deed, but the sisters were allowed to remain together and survived the war. The textured illustrations, a mixture of photos and drawings in muted hues, depict characters with very large, expressive faces on smaller, out-of-proportion bodies; they are as grotesque as the events they depict. The coauthors are cousins, daughters of Rachel and Toby, telling the story their mothers told them. Because Rachel and Toby were real people, young readers can empathize and sympathize, but the story does not try to help them understand the Holocaust: That is beyond human comprehension.Harrowing, moving, and filled with questions that cannot be answered but must be asked. (epilogue) (Picture book. 7-12)

Kirkus Reviews (Fri Oct 04 00:00:00 CDT 2024)

Rachel and Toby promised their parents that they would always stay together.When the Nazis took away all the Jewish adults, their father managed to slip Toby a tin box with three gold coins hidden in shoe polish, urging them, "above all, stay together." The sisters never saw their parents again. In Auschwitz they were assigned to a barracks with other young girls. Each day they had to build a wall of heavy stones only to take it down the following day, with the process repeating endlessly. Weakness led to disappearance and death. When Rachel became ill, she was taken away, and Toby knew she had to bring her back before she could be killed. She sneaked out, bribed a prisoner-guard with the precious gold coins, and spirited Rachel back to their own barracks. Toby was whipped for her deed, but the sisters were allowed to remain together and survived the war. The textured illustrations, a mixture of photos and drawings in muted hues, depict characters with very large, expressive faces on smaller, out-of-proportion bodies; they are as grotesque as the events they depict. The coauthors are cousins, daughters of Rachel and Toby, telling the story their mothers told them. Because Rachel and Toby were real people, young readers can empathize and sympathize, but the story does not try to help them understand the Holocaust: That is beyond human comprehension.Harrowing, moving, and filled with questions that cannot be answered but must be asked. (epilogue) (Picture book. 7-12)