Dancing on the Bridge of Avignon [Hardcover]

Ida Vos (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 30, 1995

For ten-year-old Rosa de Jong, dreams are her refuge from everyday life in Nazi-occupied Holland. Dreams and one other thing - her music, for Rosa is a talented violinist. Like other Jewish children, she can no longer go to school, but she still has her violin lessons with old Mr. Goldstein. Rosa's parents have a dream, too, one they hardly dare mention except in jokes about dancing in Avignon. But will their wartime dreams come true?

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Continuing to explore the experiences of Dutch Jewish children during WWII, Dutch author Vos (Anna Is Still Here; Hide and Seek) breaks new ground with this profoundly affecting and sorrowful novel. As the Nazis impose restrictions and as the deportations begin, Rosa, Vos's heroine, spends hours curled in a chair, lost in daydreams; she and her younger sister memorize the dates of all the Nazi proclamations and quiz each other about them-the morbid and the everyday have become interchangeable. As the historical nightmare intensifies, the parents' efforts to provide stability in their home become harder and harder. When Rosa's uncle, telling them a wildly improbable story, promises the whole family safe passage to the south of France, the girls begin learning French words and songs, and even as their desperate father recognizes that the uncle's plan is almost certainly a fantasy, he has nothing to offer in its place. In a stark, shattering conclusion, the family is arrested and sent toward certain death while Rosa is spared-because of her resemblance to a German officer's daughter. Although this novel's dark lyricism may inhibit its accessibility within the target audience, readers with some understanding of the Holocaust-adults as well as the young-will find Vos's message haunting and inescapable. Ages 8-12.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Grade 3-7?Holland in 1942 is not a safe place for Jews, yet the de Jong family does their best to live a normal life. "Normal" is a relative term, though, as 10-year-old Rosa is well aware. She loses classmates, teachers, and neighbors to concentration camps. She is teased and scorned by Nazi sympathizers. She helps make room for refugees, and suffers fear and uncertainty. Yet Rosa is still a "normal" child, surrounded by loving family and friends; she laughs, plays, pouts, gets into mischief, and experiences wonder, happiness, and hope. Her violin carries her through the story, and at book's end it saves her from certain death. This abrupt conclusion?which, despite an epilogue, leaves many questions unanswered?is Dancing on the Bridge of Avignon's only flaw. With most tales of Jews in World War II focused on hiding or concentration camps, its approach is unique. Vos's short, episodic chapters are well crafted; her writing is poignant in its understatement. Characterization is excellent?the best in Vos's books so far. This is a welcome addition to World War II novels and also gives a meaningful view of a family coping under immense stress.?Ann W. Moore, Guilderland Public Library, NY
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 12 and up
  
• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Books for Children (October 30, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0395720397
• ISBN-13: 978-0395720394
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,762,119 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I borrowed this book from the Libary and never returned it.., June 3, 2000

By 

Caitlin - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dancing on the Bridge of Avignon (Hardcover)

I read this book about 5 years ago, in 5th grade, as I have been a Holocaust nutcase since I was 11 years old. I've read everything I can get my hands on, gone to the USHMM, memorials, museums, written Miep Gies, and I can quote Anne Frank from memory. I remember taking this book out among other stacks of Holocaust Young Reader books from our small library-well, I doubt I ever returned it. Ida Vos is a genius. (And the translater, Inez Schmidt) This is a super, touching, book.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Sur le pont d'Avignon, on y danse, on y danse....", August 31, 2004

By 

Anyechka (Rensselaer, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dancing on the Bridge of Avignon (Hardcover)

(Actually, 4.5 stars)

Like Ida Vos's other books, this one too closely mirrors the story of her own family in Holland under the Nazi occupation; the de Jongs are from Groningen, have moved to Rijswijk, there are two young sisters of about the same age as the two sisters in 'Hide and Seek' and 'The Key Is Lost' (as well as the approximate ages Ida and her own younger sister Esther were), the family are living out in the open until the situation gets too worse to ignore, and the young protagonist Rosa even has the same birthdate as that of the author, 13 December 1931. Unlike her other books, however, it doesn't end with a happy reunion.

Rosa and her little sister Silvie constantly quiz one another on all of the many anti-Jewish regulations, asking what happened on what date or asking what date something happened on, since they are so afraid they might accidentally forget and sit on a park bench, enter a library, or go swimming. They are also having frequent daydreams, which really angers their father, who is under enough stress already. In the middle of this the Mendes family, who are from France (and based on the three-person family who lived with the author's family at this time), come to live with the de Jongs--Louis and his wife Isabelle, who are artists, and their 13 month old baby Philippe. Rosa and Silvie are over the moon to get a baby brother, even if he's not a real baby brother, and even more so because he gets to sleep in their room. Rosa's spirits are also kept afloat during these dark days by her violin, even though she has had to change tutors and schools a number of times because of all of the anti-Jewish regulations and arrests going on. And it is indeed her violin which literally saves her eventually.

Rosa's uncle Sander, who is famous for telling windies, tells the family one day that he has saved a German officer from drowning, and in gratitute has granted Sander and nine other people of his choosing papers to travel to the safety of Vichy France. This is based on the real-life character of Friedrich Weinreb, one of the leaders of Dutch Jewry, around whom incredible stories circled, including one about how he saved a Nazi from being struck by a car. The author's family were on the list of people Weinreb was planning to take to Vichy France as well, but unlike the de Jongs, they got suspicious of it and were taken off of it before it was too late.

The only part of the book I didn't like was how it ended in media res, after Sander has found Rosa after she's been told how to get out of the police station. The short epilogue which follows leaves a lot of unanswered questions, like how they got out of there and survived until the end of the war. The end of the epilogue itself was pretty much a dead end, with no real sense of closure; I realise that it was meant to show the reader that Rosa did take back her family's original surname, Rosevici, but that's not really closure on any of the events contained in the story or even presented in a way that makes one realise that this tale is complete.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dancing on the bridge of Avignon, March 11, 2004

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Dancing on the Bridge of Avignon (Hardcover)

This story is about a ten year old girl named Rosa and her family. They are treated unfairly because they were Jews. There are signs abandoning Jews from several things. Some of the things they are abandoned from are the Public Swimming Pool, Park, Library, even some stores. Rosa, her sister, and other Jewish children were even kicked out of their schools. One day Rosa's father came home and told Rosa and her little Silvie that they were going to a new school. They weren't so excited, because they had switched schools so many different times. So the next day Rosa and Silvie got up and got ready for school. When they arrived at the new school they knew some of the other students that went there. When they got home they were so excited to tell their parents about their day. For a month or so Rosa and Silvie continued to go to school. Then one day Rosa and her family got a message from the school that her teacher had been taken away to a concentration camp. So to know what the ending is like read the book.

I liked the book. It was kind of sad because of the ways that Jews were treated back then. There were some things that I didn't like about the book and that was how Rosa's family and other Jews were treated. I liked the books at time because I got to know how people were treated, what they had to go through, and how they had to live. I also disliked it at time because of the way they were treated, and how they had to live, and what they had to go through. I think that they should make more books focused on this time of the war because it was a really good book. I think that you should take a chance and read the book.