Eleven-year-old Julie Weiss adores her rich and successful father, but is ambivalent toward her superficial mother. Grade 5-9-A story set in Vienna on the eve of World War II. All rights reserved From School Library Journal: Ilene CooperĬopyright © American Library Association. Photos of Vienna and New York, as well as other information, are appended. But author Denenberg does a good job of capturing what it must have been like for Viennese Jews, who felt secure with their lives and friendships only to find everything can change in a minute. The book contains some omissions: no mention of Julie's trip from Vienna to New York, and after a few bad moments, not much questioning of what has become of her family. Julie's aunt is a famous stage actress, and within a few short months Julie is appearing on the stage with her, to much acclaim. Here the story takes on a fairy-tale quality. Weiss has had the foresight to give Julie English lessons and gets her to an aunt in New York. Although Julie knows she is Jewish it doesn't mean much to her until the Nazis come, and the Jewish population is terrorized Julie's mother commits suicide rather than endure the coming horror. Julie's father is a beloved doctor in Vienna, her mother a social butterfly, her brother a Zionist. This entry in the Dear America series follows 13-year-old Julie Weiss through the pivotal year 1938, when the Nazis invade Austria.
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