Review policy

Due to time pressures, I am unable to commit to reviewing books at the moment. However, please feel free to recommend or discuss by tweeting @MsTick68 or commenting on here. Thank you!

Sunday 11 March 2012

Guest Post: Judith Kerr's Out of Hitler's Time by Niamh Arthur

Today I have a guest post from Niamh Arthur, aged 10. She is writing about Judith Kerr's trilogy, Out of Hitler's Time.



Image: borders.com.au


When Hitler stole Pink Rabbit is one of my favourite books.  Anna is a 9-year-old girl in 1930s Germany.  She soon has to move away because her Jewish family think that Hitler will win the elections.  They go through many countries.  I like this book as it shows how her life would have been – frustrating, scary and secret.

Image: amazon.co.uk

Bombs on Aunt Dainty is the second book in the trilogy.  Anna now lives in London but her family cannot afford the hotel, so Anna has to get a job.  She goes to secretarial school, but soon has to move to the countryside.  This book is very good at explaining how terrifying and sleepless living through the blitz would have felt.

Image: harpercollins.co.uk

A Small Person Far Away is the final book in the series, it takes place after the war.  Anna’s mum is ill with pneumonia in Berlin, so she has to leave London, her husband, and her new job.  This book is set out differently to the other books as it is like a diary written in the third person. The chapters are different days which makes some very big chapters.  I did not like the way it was set out.  There were a few places where it would have been better to have split it into new chapters.
Despite that, this is my favourite series of books because her description of how Anna feels is amazing and the plot is very well thought about.

Thank you Niamh! This is a wonderful guest post. I haven't read A Small Person Far Away but you have convinced me to look out for it. The BBC's amazing Desert Island Discs archive includes a programme featuring Judith Kerr, which can be found here. She reflects on her own childhood, which was the inspiration for this trilogy.

7 comments:

  1. Lovely post. Will look for these books straightaway and read them after such a wonderful recommendation. Thankyou Niamh. x (and Ali x)

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  2. Thank you for commenting! I hope you enjoy them; I really enjoyed the first two and I'll look out for the third.

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  3. Thank you Niamh, lovely post! These are some of my favourite books too, especially When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit (which helped me to improve my French, among other things!).

    I got totally confused looking for these in a bookshop recently because I'm sure I remember the second book in the series having a different title - The Other Side or something like that (something a bit longer maybe). It definitely wasn't Bombs on Aunt Dainty, which I would have remembered! I know I've read it though, because like Niamh, I remember the blitz sequences are especially affecting.

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    1. You're right, Juliette. The original title was The Other Way Round, but I'm sure I read somewhere that Judith Kerr's preferred title was Bombs on Aunt Dainty.

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    2. That was it! Thank Ali, that was driving me crazy!

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  4. What a fabulous review. I didn't know much about this series of books, I'll keep an eye out for it.

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  5. Thank you Louise! Do you know Judith Kerr's picture books, like Mog the Forgetful Cat and The Tiger Who Came To Tea?

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