Customer Reviews

A Bag of Marbles

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a beautiful book that tells the true story of two young Jewish boys on the run from the Gestapo in war-torn France. The author, Joseph Joffo is never nostalgic about the ordeal he and his brother went through in their bid to escape the Death Camps of Nazi Germany. He writes from the heart but he writes with purpose. His story is a warning to future generations never to take their lives for granted. A Bag of Marbles is a fantastic book that should be on the shelves of every school in the world, just to remind future generations that life is not always a bed of roses...

Kudos to the translator for keeping the author's words & spirit in tact in this heroic and moving testimonial about what it took to survive the Holocaust & what we all must do to keep other holocausts from happening again. In his own words, "be brave, know how to take care of yourself, don't rely on others, don't let your emotions get the better of you, take responsibility." Clearly, this title is a story that will encourage & remind young readers to always remember and to take responsibility.

from the first line of the book you feel like these two boys are your best friends. you read about their adventures, but most of all how this forms or changes their young personalities. i've also read one of his other books(Anna et son orchestre)and they both create a certain atmosphere when reading them. i consider both to be one of the best books i've ever read, and i will certainly read them again..and again.

I loved the book,it is about 2 boys and one of them, Joseph Joffo tells their story about their events during the WWII. It is a very good book who faces the reality. It's a story of hope but in the same time very sad. Their family is seperated but at the end of the book, when the ware is finished ,they return each of them in Paris where their home is and they ,after three years seperaded, became ones and for all a family inseperable.

this book made me want to read more. It kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time. You are really rooting for the boys to come out of this entire oredeal alright.+

Joseph Joffo's 'Un sac de billes' is closely linked to his novel 'Simon et l'enfant'. I recommend that both novels be read together as they very much feed into each other. The former is directly autobiographical, while the latter is a novel clearly based on the author's own experiences as a Jew fighting to survive the horrific holocaust.
In both works, a child survives the horrors of the concentration camps through a combination of courage, resourcefulness and good fortune.
Joffo's writing offers a very personal, child-centred view of the Resistance, the Nazi occupation of France, the collaborators, the horrific cruelty and persecution of Jewish people, the heroism and kindness of Resistance activists and of people such as interpreters for the Nazis, who were, in reality, trying to save as many Jews as possible from the death camps.
If you have been moved by the film 'Schiendler's List', or 'The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas', or by books such as 'The Diary of Anne Frank', then the works of Joffo are bound to have an impact on you. Highly recommended.

Read about WWII through the eyes of two young Jewish during the French occupation, This is the true story of Joseh Joffo and his little brother, how they survived the war and lived to write about it. It funny and sad all at the same time. I have read the French version three time. It is a delightful book.

A bag of marbles was pretty good. If you are looking for an educational book about wwII and want to escape the gore, this is the book for you. It gets a little slow, but you really do find yourself caring for theses two boys. Plus, it is non-fiction.

The story is about two young boys : Joe and Maurice, they are French and Jews, it's in Paris during world War 2. So they must avoid. they went to the south, near the Italian border.
The story is touching and well writing, but sometimes it's very boring, because there isn't a lot of action.