Format: Paperback, 336 pages
Release Date: May 4, 2021
Publisher: Park Row
Source: Publisher
Genre: Historical / World War II
From the author of The Lost Girls of Paris comes a riveting tale of courage and unlikely friendship during World War II -- Now a New York Times bestseller!
1942.
Sadie Gault is eighteen and living with her parents in the Kraków
Ghetto during World War II. When the Nazis liquidate the ghetto, Sadie
and her pregnant mother are forced to seek refuge in the perilous
tunnels beneath the city. One day Sadie looks up through a grate and
sees a girl about her own age buying flowers.
Ella Stepanek is an
affluent Polish girl living a life of relative ease with her
stepmother, who has developed close alliances with the occupying
Germans. While on an errand in the market, she catches a glimpse of
something moving beneath a grate in the street. Upon closer inspection,
she realizes it’s a girl hiding.
Ella begins to aid Sadie and the
two become close, but as the dangers of the war worsen, their lives are
set on a collision course that will test them in the face of
overwhelming odds. Inspired by incredible true stories, The Woman with the Blue Star is an unforgettable testament to the power of friendship and the extraordinary strength of the human will to survive.
"Everything changed the day they came for the children."
Pam Jenoff's The Woman with the Blue Star focuses on two unique characters from different backgrounds; Sadie and Ella. They year is 1942, Germany has invaded Poland and things are about to get really bad for the Jews living in Poland as well as anyone else who stands in Hitler's way of the Jewish solution. 18-year-old Sadie Gault is living with her parents in the Kraków
Ghetto during World War II after being forced from their own homes. For most of the time, Sadie, who must wear an armband with a blue star identifying her as Jewish, was forced into hiding between walls, and large trunks in order not to be found by the Germans.
When the Nazi SS and Gestapo liquidated the ghetto, Sadie, her father, and her pregnant mother and another Jewish family are forced to seek refuge in the perilous tunnels beneath the city. Even when tragedy strikes, Sadie has to keep going. She has to rely on the kindness of others to provide much needed food for her and her mother who is ready to have her baby any day. The worst part is that Sadie sees and hears what is happening around her. When her friend is taken, when children are forced out into the streets and loaded onto trucks, when a mother makes a horrifying choice.
One day Sadie looks up through a grate and sees a girl about her own age buying flowers. 19-year-old Ella Stepanek is an affluent Polish Catholic girl living a life of relative ease with her evil stepmother who has developed close alliances with the occupying Germans. While on an errand in the market, she catches a glimpse of something moving beneath a grate in the street. Upon closer inspection, she realizes it’s a girl hiding. She has to deal with a boyfriend who went off to war, and now finds that he's part of a rebellion against the Germans.
Ella begins to secretly aid Sadie and the two become close, but as the dangers of the war worsen, their lives are set on a collision course that will test them in the face of overwhelming odds. Ella has to be careful of what she's doing. If she's caught, she could be executed as a traitor.
Sadie’s story is apparently based on a true story about a group of Jews who survived the Holocaust by living in the sewers of Lviv, Poland. Jenoff captured the horrific conditions, the fear, the loss, the struggle, and the hope, and translating them into mesmerizing words on the page. I do hope that readers of High School age pick up this story and read for yourselves the horrible conditions that people like Said and her family were forced to face day in and day out in order to survive. As a teaser, you will want to stay for the twisted ending.
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