Hilary and Jackie

Amazon.com

Jacqueline du Pré saw the outlines of her short, brilliant, and tragic life when she was still very young. The first time she heard a cello (she was 4 years old), she said, "Mummy, I want to make that sound." She got a cello for her 5th birthday and made her professional debut at age 16. She went on to become one of the century's most amazing musicians for 10 years. Then her career was ended by multiple sclerosis. She seems to have foreseen that crippling illness, which killed her at age 42 after years of slow deterioration. She was 9 years old when she confided in her sister, Hilary (who coauthored this biography with their brother, Piers), "Don't tell Mum, but... when I grow up, I won't be able to walk or move." Before she was stricken down, Jacqueline du Pré led a life of unusual richness and complexity. Here that life is examined by her siblings in loving but realistic terms, including the flaws and conflicts as well as the achievements.

The biography formed the basis for the 1998 film starring Emily Watson. It is a sad chronicle of the pitiless disease that twisted Jackie's personality and sanity as well as her body, but also a joyful book about music, the tenderness and rivalries of family life, and above all a singular, tormented, but buoyant personality. --Joe McLellan

Book Description

From the moment Jacqueline du Pré first held a cello at the age of five, it was clear she had an extraordinary gift. At sixteen, when she made her professional debut, she was hailed as one of the world's most talented and exciting musicians. But ten years later, she stopped playing virtually overnight, when multiple sclerosis removed the feeling in her hands just before a concert. It took fourteen more years for the crippling disease to take its final toll.

In this uniquely revealing biography, Hilary and Piers du Pré have re-created the life they shared with their sister in astonishing personal detail, unveiling the private world behind the public face. With warmth and candor they recount Jackie's blissful love of the cello, her marriage to the conductor Daniel Barenboim, her compulsions, her suffering, and, above all, the price exacted by her talent on the whole family. For proud as they were of Jackie's enormous success, none of them was prepared for the profound impact her genius would have on each of their lives. . . .

Customer Reviews:

Families are complicated.......2005-07-15

Families are complicated - especially when one member is considered a genius and everything, whether rightly or not, comes to revolve around that person.

This book has been retitled "Hilary and Jackie" in the US to tie in with the movie release (it's a wonderful movie, BTW), but the original of "A Genius in the Family" is a much more suitable title as "H & J" gives a flase impression that it's the story of the two sisters, when really it is meant to be the story or what happens within a family under extraordinary circumstances.

Neither Hilary or Piers du Pre are brilliant writers, but the book is adequate in the literary sense - think of any decent family memoir written by non-professional writers and don't expect Pulitzer Prize material and you won't be disappointed.

Some reviewers have expressed annoyance at all the "cutesy" nicknames and such that the family has for each other. It's rather an English thing (think perhaps of A. A. Milne?), and well, every family has its quirks, so I personally do not find it annoying or cloying and more an indication of their affection for each other.

Others have expressed the view that this desecrates the memory of Jackie - but whose memory of Jackie? These are the memories that Hilary and Piers have of Jackie, their family, and how they coped with Jackie's needs, rise to fame, and subesequent decline with Multiple Sclerosis. Our memories are not always strictly the facts, they are often the impression that we want to have or some mix thereof. Whether or not you think that Hilary was rather mistaken in letting Kiffer (her husband) and Jackie sleep together, whether you think they all needed a good round of therapy...you must admit that Hilary and Piers do appear to have been honest with themselves and their remembrance of their family. Their biography may not match up with others', but this again is the nature of memory, and I don't think that anywhere in the book it is stated that this is a super-factual, dry history.

As for Hilary seeming jealous, I can sympathise very much with her. She was an extremely talented musician in her own right but always had the shadow of Jacqueline du Pre over her - and jealousy and resentment are a natural reaction to something like this. I do not get the impression that she is bitter and twisted because of it, but tried to make peace with herself and find joy in her own large family.

And Piers. Two great musicians for older sisters and family life that catered mainly for one and most of the rest for the other, and I'm not going to begrudge him the chance to tell the world that he's not just "the other du Pre child". His discovery of his love of piloting and finding spiritual fulfilment in professing Christianity sound perhaps a bit lame within this book, but hey, it's who he is and I still find it interesting as part of the family journey as a whole.

Unmitigated trash.......2004-02-28

Hilary is the sick one here. Jealousy is a green-eyed monster and she has desecrated the memory of her sister with this piece of you-know-what. And it's badly written besides.

very worthwhile.......2003-10-04

Before I get to the actual review, a couple of extra-literary complaints:

1) This was originally called "A Genius in the Family". It makes no sense (other than business sense) to retitle it "Hilary and Jackie". It is no more about or by Hilary du Pre than it is by or about Piers du Pre. It is especially absurd to put photographs of ACTORS on the front and back cover.

2) The amazon.com amateur "reviewers" who have abused this opportunity so as to hurl invective at Jackie or her family remind me of the strangers depicted in the book who send letters to Jackie and say such hurtful things as her conversion to Judaism is responsible for her multiple sclerosis. The authors are telling you what happened; they are not asking you to pass judgement. (For that matter, nonsensical psychobabble buzzwords such as "dysfunctional" and "enabler" should be expunged from the language.)

Ad rem: In the main, this a gripping and surprisingly well-written story, considering that neither of the authors are professional writers. Don't get that idea, however, that it is in any way comparable to something like Hemingway's "A Movable Feast"; it isn't nearly THAT well written. Hilary does a better job than Piers, lapsing into banality significantly less often. Piers is better at describing Jackie than his life apart from her. We never catch his supposed enthusiasm for flying. His stilted account of his religious awakening seems wholly gratuitous and artificial.

Considering that there is scarcely a whiff of didacticism in these pages, it is surprising that you end up learning so much of trenchant value about music, en passant, as it were.

A moving and honest biography of a complex woman.......2003-07-24

"Hilary and Jackie" is a moving and honest, if somewhat ploddingly written, biography of a great cellist whose genius took over a family. Being a prodigy is not easy for anyone, nor is it easy for a family to have a member--even more than one member--who is ill. What I think is especially tragic is that Hilary too was gifted, and that got lost in both Jackie's pursuit of the cello and in Hilary being placed with the wrong flute teacher. One can only wonder what would have happened if Hilary had pursued her gifts in the way Jackie had.

What speaks so well for the book is that, despite all of Jackie's selfish behavior, she still comes across as a sympathetic person, as seen through the eyes of her brother and sister, especially her sister. While they pull no punches, they clearly love their talented sibling. And as we read about her, so do we. Sometimes, they come across like pushovers, especially Hilary, who needed to grow a backbone and tell her sister and husband no to their sexual shenanigans. But love and devotion can lead to strange things. Give the authors credit for being honest, and for researching MS and what it can do to people, without necessarily making excuses for Jackie.

An intimate, insightful read!.......2003-02-16

This is the story of the musical genius Jackie Du Pre as told by her sister Hilary and brother Piers.

Young Jackie was enthralled by the sounds of a cello at the tender age of 4. At 5 under her mothers tutelage she began lessons. Shortly thereafter, her gift was realized. She played not technically perfect but with an overwhelming passion and depth that stunned the music world.

Her sister an accomplished musician in her own right was pushed to the side as the accolades went to Jackie.

Piers became a pilot and later a businessman to escape a muscial competition he knew he could not match.

Throughout the book the love for family comes through. The mother's joy in music and her care in sharing and teaching her skills to her family flows throughout the book.

Jackies development as a musician is swift and her sister Hilary realizes that despite her own talents Jackie has a gift that can't be matched.

As an individual who cannot play an instrument, it is fascinating to read of someone who is so gifted. To enter the exciting world of music and feel the passion even as a bystander is entrancing. Reading of how the different cello's required different care depending on their wood and strings and how each made its own unique sounds was an education in itself.

And the book swept me up not only musically but emotionally. Frankly I was shocked by the revelations from Hilary. At one point in the book, Jackie was emotionally weak and supposedly too distraught to be alone so she slept with Hilary and Hilary's husband Kiffer in the same bed.

In the next few chapters Hilary is upset to discover that her husband sleeps with Jackie on numerous occasions to keep her (Jackie) from plumeting into dispair. But Hilary is stoic realizing it was necessary for Jackies "mental health". Emotionally, I felt like slapping some sense into Hilary. Since when do you invite your sister to share the same bed as you and your husband and not expect some repercussions.

This self sacrificing behavior so that, "what Jackie wants, Jackie gets" is evident throughout the book.

Eventually Jackie is diagnosed with MS and begins verbally abusing those around her. Sadly she is unable to continue to perform.

The book is a hard to put down read and will touch many emotionally.

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Respectable but does not give the key to the personality

A Story Beyond Words

A story beyond words

A Genius in the Family: An Intimate Biography of Jacueline Du Pre.
Hilary and Piers. DU PRE
Manufacturer: Vintage, 1998 (1997).
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Jacqueline du Pre - Favourite Cello Concertos ~ Boccherini, Dvorak, Elgar, Haydn, Monn, Saint-Saens, Schumann

Jacqueline du Pre In Portrait

ASIN: 0099274787

Customer Reviews:

Respectable but does not give the key to the personality .......2005-03-02

The brother and sister of the great cellist Jacqueline du Pre tell her life story. Du Pre who died tragically young was a cellist at the highest level. Her marriage to the conductor and pianist Daniel Barenboim , and their musical friendship with Zubin Mehta, Pinhas Zukerman and others put her in the center of the music world's attention .This book tells the story of her life but somehow does not give us a sense of who she most deeply was . The legend tells of her beauty and her genius and her tragic death. And the brother and sister seem fair in describing their own complicated relationship with her in which they often played a fostering and supportive role. Perhaps the real inner life of Du Pre is not to be sought in the kind of biographical work written here, or for that matter in any literary work, but in the playing in her recordings where she was most alive. In one passage of the book she does speak about the way playing takes her above into another realm of joy. And by all accounts she was a tremendously passionate and powerful cellist. There are even critics who say that she played more of herself, than she did of the score before her. And that in repertoire she was not broad and innovative enough. In any case it seems universally agreed by musical cognescenti that she at her best was at the very highest level. I am no great maven here but I too can admit to being quite moved at the hearing of her playing of the Elgar Cello Concerto.
The story of her marriage to Barenboim, their whirlwind life, its break- up is also told here in a very concise and limited form. Barenboim the bon vivant, the tireless promoter and player somehow may have been a bit too fast for the English country girl who according to her sister needed nine hours of sleep and not the four or five Barenboim did. In any case this part of the book is devastatingly sad as of course is the end.
The brother Piers and the sister Hilary who wrote this book truly cared for and tried to help their sister. This book is part of their effort to keep her memory alive in the best way possible.

A Story Beyond Words.......2003-09-15

This is a very personal and very sad book about the memories of English cellist Jacqueline du Pré, as told by her brother and sister Piers and Hilary du Pré. From her childhood, to her deathbed, this book will move you to tears every time you read it. I highly recommened this book to anyone who is a musician (myself included) or anyone with passion for music.

A story beyond words.......2003-09-15

This book is a very personal and very sad book about the memoires of Jacqueline du Pré, the English Cellist, told by her brother and sister Piers and Hilary du Pré. From childhood, to her death bed this very intimate book will move you to tears. I highly recommend this book to any who is a musician (myself included) or anyone who has a passion for the arts.

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A Different View

Jacqueline du Pré: A Biography
Carol Easton
Manufacturer: Da Capo
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0306809761

Book Description

First time in paperback: A "strong, compelling, and compassionate book" (Boston Globe) about the acclaimed and ill-fated cellist who died at the age of forty-two.

Carol Easton, who knew Jacqueline du Pr well, draws on this friendship to create a moving and insightful portrait of a singularly complex person. Jacqueline du Pr (the subject of the recent film Hilary and Jackie) was the music world's "golden girl," with what appeared to many to be a fairytale career and storybook marriage to Daniel Barenboim. But away from her cello, du Pr was achingly human. As a child, she was isolated by her phenomenal talent. As an adult, she was confined to the rarefied, insular concert world. And during the last fifteen years of her life, she lived in the inexorably shrinking world of the invalid, as multiple sclerosis took its toll. The Baltimore Sun said, Carol Easton tells this extraordinary story "with feeling befitting du Pr's own."

Customer Reviews:

A Different View.......2006-06-30

I read this biography of Jaqueline du Pre when it first came out in 1990. The author portrays her as a wonderful, talented cello player whose career is tragically ended by debilitating disease. This very positive portrait of Jaqueline has you falling in love with her, and then terribly saddened by her fate.

Then came Hilary and Jackie, the movie, which portray her as a neurotic jerk who seems perpetually depressed, and tired of her cello. In the Easton biography Ms. du Pre's husband is the philandering one, and no mention is made of a tryst between Jackie and Hilary's husband.

I don't know. Maybe this book is pure hagiography, i.e. the author is enamored of JdP, and ignores anything negative. Yet is interesting to have a view of this renowned cellist that is different than the movie. I really enjoyed reading the book, and as a lover of Ms. Du Pre's music, maybe this positive image is the one I want to stick in my mind.

Jacqueline Du Pre: Her Life, Her Music, Her Legend

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A wonderful hagiography!
Good bio
A book revelling the glamours and struggles of a musician
A very complete, very "British" book
The Biography Jacueline du Pre Deserves

Jacqueline Du Pre: Her Life, Her Music, Her Legend
Elizabeth Wilson
Manufacturer: Arcade Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1559705191

Amazon.com

This biography of the cellist Jacqueline du Pré, who died in 1987 after a long struggle against multiple sclerosis, has been written with the full support of her husband, the musician and conductor Daniel Barenboim. At first sight it could be construed as something of a counterweight to books critical of Barenboim written by du Pré's brother and sister--in particular A Genius in the Family. But while Barenboim does present his side of the story--in relation to both du Pré's illness and the strains it put upon their marriage--Elizabeth Wilson has in fact presented a balanced portrait of du Pré not only as a woman but also as an artist. And this is the book's real strength.

Wilson, a cellist herself, knew du Pré in her playing days and has paid as much attention to the music as to the offstage emotional dramas. She burst upon the music scene as a phenomenally talented 16-year-old, and ever since, du Pré's fame and tragic life story have made the task of stripping the myth from the reality no easy task. In fact, Elizabeth Wilson has done a professional job in unraveling du Pré's enigmatic life and legacy, but most of all, she reminds us that du Pré became famous in the first place because of her genius as a musician. --Nick Wroe, Amazon.co.uk

Book Description

' She was beautiful. She was a musical genius. She was married to another prodigious musician, the conductor and pianist Daniel Barenboim. Their fairy-tale marriage turned them into a royal musical couple. In this definitive biography, Elizabeth Wilson, herself a cellist who knew Jacqueline du Pr in her playing days, charts du Pr's meteoric career from her early identification with the cello to the achievement of her stardom by her early twenties, when she became a legend virtually overnight.

For over a decade Jacqueline du Pr performed the cello repertory with all the best symphonic orchestras to standing-room-only houses around the world, and during those years she also recorded the entire cello literature. At the age of twenty-seven, however, Jackie was felled at the height of her career by multiple sclerosis. She died in 1987, leaving behind a rich and extraordinary musical legacy, and renowned as one of the best-loved musicians of the century.

Jackie's unworldly nature and ability to communicate in her playing the full spectrum of human emotions hid a complex personality where dark doubts coexisted with the certainty of her talent. Wilson details Jackie's passionate, tumultuous, complicated relationship with her sister Hilary, depicted in the film Hilary and Jackie. She also examines the origins and nature of Jackie's extraordinary talent, assesses her lasting importance as an interpreter, and concludes her biography with a sensitive account of du Pr's tragic physical decline, when, no longer able to play, Jacqueline struggled bravely against the ravages of her unforgiving illness. Du Pr's glorious career, her valiant fight against hopeless odds, brings additional inspiration to this edifying biography."

Customer Reviews:

A wonderful hagiography!.......2004-09-10

When looking for a biography of Du Pré, I consciously avoided the ill-reputed memoir by her siblings and opted for this "more balanced" account. However, Wilson clearly has as many stakes in her recounting of Du Pré's life as Hilary and Piers du Pré had, and whatever the merits of this book, objectivity is not among them. I guess people who knew their subject personally rarely make good biographers, and in that respect the involvement of Barenboim in this venture is worrisome. Wilson's over-the-top, sustained exaltation almost becomes the verbal equivalent of du Pré's larger-than-life style of playing. But even a performer of this stature can give only one "best ever" concert, not ten or twenty...
There can be no question about du Pré's extraordinary talent and charisma. Her 1965 Elgar disc still stands firm as one of the absolute must-haves of classical recordings. Why can't Wilson let that be enough, why the need to describe her subject as if she were a creature of all-round unearthly perfection? Du Pré has suffered much from the fact that her precocious talent set her apart from "normal" people; Wilson widens the gulf rather than bridging it, thus posthumously compounding the trauma. The fact of the matter is that du Pré was not only an extraordinary musician, but also an ordinary, flesh and blood, and therefore flawed human being.
In Wilson's rendering, however, du Pré is literally flawless. This is most evident in her reporting on less than perfect concert performances. The blame is immediately diverted from the cellist: the instrument was no good; the conductor was unsympathetic; the orchestra was sloppy... When citing some insightful critical reviews of Du Pré's New York debut, rather than using them to add profile to her image, Wilson again jumps into defensive mode, not afraid to draw the embarrassingly feeble conclusion that these 'nit-picking' critics simply weren't able to open up to du Pré's artistry. She won't hesitate either to then go on and tell us why she, Wilson, thinks it was actually a very good performance - as if her personal opinion is of any particular interest to the reader.
Worse, by letting go of objectivity, Wilson ignores the core dilemma of du Pré's playing: the overbearing presence of her personality in it, often overruling the intentions of the composer and sometimes reducing the music, as one reviewer astutely observed, to a mere "plaything". It explains her lack of interest in composers, backgrounds, or scores of the works she played; it may also explain why she chose to spend the tragically brief decade of her musical maturity playing the same, unadventurous handful of works over and over again, rather than exploring (let alone inspiring) new repertoire. She contented herself with works that were apt vehicles for her style of playing and was quick to drop pieces that did not immediately "fit" her (e.g. Shostakovich's First Cello concerto, or the Britten Cello Symphony). Wilson off-handedly explains Du Pré's narrow choice of repertoire with the extraordinary and nonsensical claim that the literature for solo cello is relatively limited. Why, even the father of her brother in law, Gerald Finzi, wrote a wonderful cello concerto she never played.
Insights into the personality and psychology of the cellist are completely absent. How du Pré's personality worked, and why, remains completely unclear. Her refusal to accept real responsibilities, exemplified by the willy-nilly cancellation of concert appointments, suggests a certain immaturity - but Wilson simply files it under "spontaneity". Baffling contradictions abound. Du Pré needed an audience to be able to play, we're told, yet she played exactly the same whether she was in a recording studio or in concert. She remained simple and unassuming, yet was very picky when it came to selecting orchestra's with which she did and didn't want to play. The marriage to Barenboim was heaven itself, nevertheless all of a sudden they are breaking up and both conducting extramarital affairs, dramatic developments that are mentioned by Wilson out-of-the-blue, and as quickly passed over.
By avoiding going into these thorny questions and glossing over du Pré's image, the book quickly becomes repetitive, even boring. We are told ad nauseam how strongly du Pré communicated through her playing, how rich her musical intuitions were, and how everybody instantly fell in love with her. Endless paeans of praise fill page after page. Claims are made that at times stretch credulity: did Muscovites really burst into tears by the dozens at hearing Du Pré play something as innocuous as Haydn's C major concerto? Was she really able to imagine the orchestral accompaniment of the Delius concerto from the solo voice alone at first acquaintance? Or are we crossing the line between biography and mythology?
The breathless adoration unfortunately also goes at the cost of accuracy. The violinist is called Buswell, not Buzwell; Gerald Finzi died in 1956, not 1959; halfway through the Moscow chapter Natalia Gutman suddenly changes into Natasha; - even musical terms are misspelled: we come across things like "spicatto" and "fermato".
By the time Wilson arrives at the harrowing final illness (dispatched very succinctly, by the way), she has put du Pré at such a distance from the reader and humanity in general that it is almost impossible to feel moved at all at this devastating tragedy. I will now be seeking out "A genius in the family", where hopefully Jackie will reemerge as a human being.

Good bio.......2001-07-17

Jacqueline du Pré was a child prodigy on the cello. She made her debut at the age of 16, having been held back by her mother and cello teacher. But once she hit the stage - she became an international star. Her playing was so interpretive that she was often criticized for detracting from the music. However, she also influenced many notable classical musicians of our time with her fervent interpretations of the cello repetoire. Her career as a cellist, however, was short-lived as, at the age of 27, she was diagnosed with MS. Her cheerful demeanor and courageous outlook on life is chronicled here, as are most of her performances.

This biography, while some times reading like a discography of Jacqueline du Pré is a very biased toward du Pré's husband's point of view, but much more even-handed about du Pré than Hilary and Jackie. However, Elizabeth Wilson is herself a cellist and student of du Pré and she makes a lot of assumptions that the reader will also have a thorough understanding of certain musical terminology such as up or down bow or glissando. This is an interesting book, but may be terdious to anyone who does not have a thorough grounding in the cello repetoire, classical music or the playing of a stringed instrument.

A book revelling the glamours and struggles of a musician.......2001-02-08

A sensitive book on the life of Du Pre as a musician and a person. This book contains detail reviews of Du Pre's playing in concerts. The readers will be Wilson also tell us about her life and struggles apart from her performing life. Good balance biography.

A very complete, very "British" book.......2001-01-21

Du Pre-philes are going to be flush with pleasure after reading this. It's a scholarly work that seemingly pins down every concert that Du Pre ever played, often with mini-reviews of the performances. It's far preferable to the trashy "Hilary and Jackie" and does far better service to Du Pre's life and art. Thankfully, the ending segments dealing with Du Pre's illness are short and to the point.

American readers should be aware that this is a VERY "British" book. Wilson uses British spelling and grammar throughout, and assumes a knowledge of the local geography. Like many British writers, Wilson has a charming ignorance of America, and even goes as far as to "correct" our spelling - "The Lincoln Centre (sic)", "Pittsburg (sic)", "The Carnegie Hall (sic)". On page 300, a truck stop in the Midwest is hilariously referred to as a "highway transport cafe."

Recommended for Du Pre's many fans.

The Biography Jacueline du Pre Deserves.......2000-01-15

Elizabeth Wilson knew Jacueline du Pre and while such a relationship may not produce a good biography, this is an excellent one. This book is much needed, particularly following the film "Hilary and Jackie." This book answers all the questions about Ms. du Pre and gives us clear insight into who she was and how she came to be the woman who was unquestionably one of the great instrumentalists of the 20th century. I found myself reading this book and listening to recordings of Ms. du Pre play; an unbeatable combination.

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Jacqueline Du Pre
Elizabeth Wilson
Manufacturer: Faber and Faber
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0571200176

Book Description

Elizabeth Wilson's life of Jaqueline Du Pre is authorized by Barenboim and has exclusive access to familly papers. She has tracked down hitherto unheard recordings, and the book is the most authoritative and rounded account yet of anartist permanently held in high public affection.

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Jacqueline du Pre: A Biography.
CAROL EASTON
Manufacturer: See notes
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000RRAM8Q

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Embarrassangly ignorant about music; fair-minded otherwise.
Great Book

Jacqueline Du Pre: A Life
Carol Easton
Manufacturer: Summit Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0671695916

Customer Reviews:

Embarrassangly ignorant about music; fair-minded otherwise........1999-03-17

By her own admission, Easton knows little about music. This does not prevent here from offering us a great deal of inofrmation about music, most of it mistaken. She shares with a lot of people in this position an embarrassing naivete about what it is to perform, and a corresponding lack of insight into the particular circumstances of du Pre's retirement from the stage. It is hard to understand why someone who knows nothing of music should want to write the story of one of the century's leading musicians. Given that she has done so, it is a reasonable job, as far as one can tell, in relation to the non-musical facts. She is particularly fairminded in dealing with the enigma of du Pre's final nurse, Ruth Ann.

Great Book.......1997-08-14

This is a great book about a great 'cellist. It is a welcome change in the world of tabloid biographies. Easton does a wonderful job in writing about an all to often neglected and forgotten genius

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Jacqueline Du Pre. A Biography
Carol Easton
Manufacturer: Summit Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000NUIMTS

Customer Reviews:

Quick study about the Holocaust.......2002-07-05

This is a short book, only 64 pages, with large print and lots of photos, so it is quick to read. Although I think the book could be longer, I still give it 5 stars because any book that makes people, especially the younger generation, aware of what happened during the Holocaust is an important contribution. The book is designed to inform teens as it relates the stories of several people who were teenagers at the time they were in hiding during WWII. Because the stories are short, young people who might not ordinarily take the time to read historical text, will find it easy to become generally informed about what these survivors went through, and the circumstances of their persecution by the Nazis.

Each of the biographies in this book tells a unique story...some teens were hidden in private houses, often moving from place to place, and one 12-year-old girl survived in the forest, eating insects and raw rats. Once she had hidden in a haystack with other refugees, but they were discovered and attacked by anti-Jews who stabbed the haystack with pitchforks. When all was quiet, she climbed out and found the others' mutilated bodies lying on the ground.

The book ends with updates about those teens' lives today.

This book and the other seven in the series (Teen Witnesses to the Holocaust) would be useful for a quick study on the Holocaust.

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The Hidden Children of the Holocaust: Teens Who Hid from the Nazis
Esther Kustanowitz
Manufacturer: Rosen Publishing Group, Incorporated, The
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000MHODCC

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