How Huge The Night

by

Heather and Lydia Munn

ISBN: 9780825433108

paperback, 304 pages

Kregel publications

Product Description

Fifteen-year-old Julien Losier just wants to fit in. But after his family moves to a small village in central France in hopes of outrunning the Nazis, he is suddenly faced with bigger challenges than the taunting of local teens.

Nina Krenkel left her country to obey her father's dying command: Take your brother and leave Austria. Burn your papers. Tell no one you are Jews. Alone and on the run, she arrives in Tanieux, France, dangerously ill and in despair.

Thrown together by the chaos of war, Julien begins to feel the terrible weight of the looming conflict and Nina fights to survive. As France falls to the Nazis, Julien struggles with doing what is right, even if it is not enough-and wonders whether or not he really can save Nina from almost certain death.

Based on the true story of the town of Le Chambon-the only French town honored by Israel for rescuing Jews from the Holocaust-How Huge the Night is a compelling, coming-of-age drama that will keep teens turning the pages as it teaches them about a fascinating period of history and inspires them to think more deeply about their everyday choices.

Based on the true story of the town of Le Chambon-the only French town honored by Israel for rescuing Jews from the Holocaust-How Huge the Night is a compelling, coming-of-age drama that will keep teens turning the pages as it teaches them about a fascinating period of history and inspires them to think more deeply about their everyday choices.  This was taken from http://www.familyfiction.com.

MY REVIEW:

Just as World War 2 was beginning fifteen year old Julien Losier was very upset with his parents as they were moving them from Paris and all his friends to a small village Tanieux in central France where his father grew up and just up the road from his grandfather's farm.  This was a small town and he just knew he would never fit in with these people.  

There is another girl Nina Krenkel alone with her brother had to leave their country on their father's command and go to Austria and he told them to burn their papers and not to tell anyone they were Jewish. They arrived in Tanieux ill and in despair. She didn't know what she was going to do. Then she and her brother met up with Julien Losier.

They though as by going there they would run from the Nazis and be safe but nowhere was safe from Hitler. He and his sister both knew they would never be safe as they watched their father die and then tried to run to Austria alone with a Jewish boy they had meet and helped.  None of them knew how close to death they would come too as they struggled to stay alive.

This book was written well and the authors seemed to know what they were writing about.  I usually don't like anything about World War 2 as I was born during this time and had a brother and 3 brothers-in-law in Germany fighting, three came back alive but one of my brothers-in-law was in a box.  But this book was interesting and written in a way for younger people, so I was able to understand it better.  I am a great-grandmother so it takes something that really explains things for me to understand.  I really am a history buff so I rate this book as a 4.5

Thanks so much to Kregel Publications for the free copy of this book in order for me to review.