Saving Rafael

Gr 9 Up—This is a love story, set against the backdrop of Nazi Germany. Jenny Friedemann and Rafael Jakoby meet as young children and grow up in an era when it is safe for them to play together. Around the time that their friendship shows signs of maturing, Hitler's government declares relations between Germans and Jews to be illegal. From this point forward Jenny grows up fast. She witnesses arrests of people she loves and loses her brother to the enemy's gun and her Quaker father to the enemy's prison. When the Gestapo comes to arrest Raf and his mother, he manages to escape and seeks shelter with the Friedemanns. For several months they live in fear of being denounced and of being separated, which does happen. After being imprisoned in a concentration camp, Jenny and her mother are rescued by her uncle, who is prominent in the Nazi party. After feeding them, he forces them out again. With the help of a Quaker friend, Jenny is reunited with Raf, and they finally have hope for their future. While this is a touching story, its telling is so fraught with detail about the characters' day-to-day lives that it occasionally drags. Each air raid and every meal is described to the point that readers will be tempted to jump to the end to see how it all turns out.—Wendy Scalfaro, G. Ray Bodley High School, Fulton, NY