Erika's Story [Hardcover]

Ruth Vander Zee (Author), Roberto Innocenti (Illustrator)

Book Description

Grade Level: 3 and up

The searing, beautiful illustrations of acclaimed artist Roberto Innocenti capture the fear, love, and sadness of a Holocaust survivor's tale in this story of a Jewish couple who make a heart-rending decision so that their infant daughter might live. Based on a true story.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 3 Up-Vander Zee narrates this true story in the voice of Erika, a woman she encountered in a German village, who, as a blanket-wrapped infant, was thrown from a cattle car bound for a concentration camp in 1944. ("On her way to death, my mother threw me to life.") A German woman risked her own life to raise Erika, who eventually married and had children of her own. ("Today my tree once again has roots.") The spare, eloquent text perfectly complements Innocenti's gray and beige photo-realistic illustrations that show haunting, finely detailed, sterile winter scenes of train cars, tracks, and cold brick-and-stone buildings surrounded by barbed wire. On other pages, a white baby carriage and the small pink bundle catch the eye. Only the contemporary opening scene and the final postwar spread are in full color. Compelling and powerful in its simplicity, Erika's story proves that determination, hope, and goodness can overcome evil. Stars are important to this story. Yellow Stars of David are visible on the people's clothing and the symbol appears on every page, separating Erika's thoughts. She mentions God's biblical promise to Abraham that his people "would be as many as the stars in the heavens," and that "six million of those stars fell between 1933 and 1945." The large die-cut yellow pentagram on the front cover is a jarring exception to the carefully crafted text and illustrations. This poignant story of survival deserves a wide audience.
Susan Scheps, Shaker Heights Public Library, OH
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Gr. 3-6. "My mother threw me from the train." A Jewish woman in Germany today tells how, as an infant, she survived the Holocaust after she was thrown from a train on its way to the camps in 1944 and was taken in and raised by a village woman. The survivor imagines her parents in the ghetto and transports. Did they hold her close and kiss her before throwing her away to save her life? Innocenti, who did the Holocaust picture book Rose Blanche (1991), dramatizes the horror in amazingly detailed photo-like illustrations with an overlay of surreal imagery: a small baby carriage stands on the platform as the Jews are being loaded into the cattle cars; wrapped in bright pink, a baby flies through the air as the train hurtles through pastoral landscapes. The clear, tiny details dramatize both the fragility and the endurance of the infant survivor, as well as the bizarre calm of the "normal" world. Is the woman's story true? The experience is certainly known to have happened to some babies. Hazel Rochman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

• Hardcover: 24 pages
• Publisher: Creative Editions (August 31, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1568461763
• ISBN-13: 978-1568461762
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 10.2 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #554,441 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #81 in Books > Children's Books > History > Holocaust

More About the Author

Ruth has written numerous children's books and most recently authored for women "Woman Meets Jesus: How Jesus Encourages, Empowers, and Equips Women on Their Personal Journey of Faith." As a pastor's wife, she has welcomed thousands of people into her home. As an author, she travels, talking with students and teachers about her books and the writing process. Ruth lives in Miami, Florida with her husband Vern.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Erika's Story, February 7, 2007

By 

Jewish Book World Magazine (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Erika's Story (Hardcover)

Readers familiar with Rose Blanche, Roberto Innocenti's illustrated story about the Holocaust, will again be impressed with the outstanding illustrations in this new children's book on the same theme. A fascinating author's note on the first page explains Ruth Vander Zee's accidental meeting with a woman sitting next to her in the town square of Rothenburg, Germany in 1995. Zee chats about her recent Israel trip with the amiable woman after noticing a Star of David around her neck. The story that follows is the woman's story, whose name is Erika. The story she relates is entirely new to the genre of illustrated books about the Holocaust. The style is spare and emotionally quite powerful. Erika was born in 1944 and was an infant as her mother boarded a cattle car and headed for certain death. Erika states, "I wonder where she stood. Was she in the middle of the car? Was my father next to her? Did he tell her to be brave? Did they talk about what to do? When did they make their decision?" The astonishing decision, one that few can ever contemplate, is related like this: "What happened next is the only thing I know for sure....My mother threw me from the train." The amazing illustration of a pink blanketed, swaddled baby flying from a train window toward an onlooker on a bicycle demands pause. Contrasted with the dark greys of the cattle car and train tracks, it reminds one of the little girl in the red coat in Schindler's List, and it has the same effect. Erika goes on to finish the rest of her story of how she was brought up in Germany by a woman who risked her life to do so, but we are left feeling that Erika has had to overcome a very powerful sadness. The book does end on a hopeful note, however, as Erika relates that her own children now have grandchildren and that it seems that her family may identify as Jews, although that is not stated. One quibble with the design of the book involves the use of the star motif. The designer has used small black Stars of David to separate paragraphs and create a more poetic narration. A small 5-pointed yellow star is also used appealingly as a hopeful sign on the book's last page. But the cover of the book is designed as a cut-out with a large 5 pointed yellow star which is clearly trying to represent the yellow stars Jews wore in the Holocaust. Why is this star not 6 points? There is something essentially wrong with this cover representation. But, despite this flaw, the book is highly recommended for readers 10 years and older, wherever illustrated books on Holocaust are used.
Reviewed by Lisa Silverman

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Powerful and Moving, June 7, 2005

By 

Diane Lesniewski (Greenlawn, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Erika's Story (Hardcover)

I read through this book today at the library where I work, and I had a tough time holding myself together afterwards. I cannot remember when I last read a book--adult OR children's--that touched me as deeply as "Erika's Story." Erika's parents gave up the baby they loved to give her a chance at life...and she got to live, to grow up and have children of her own. Even at a time when part of the world was mad with evil and hate...there still was courage, and good, and love.

Highly, highly recommended.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a work of art and love, March 12, 2007

By 

marialoor (Miami, FL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Erika's Story (Hardcover)

I found myself speechless, ....everything about this book it is simply beautiful and exquisite...the story, the illustrations, the binding, the design, ...a work of art an love.