Customer Reviews

Hide and Seek

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As a sixth grader I really enjoyed the book Hide And Seek. The story was about a little girl named Rachel who lived with her parent's and her sister. Rachel was only eight years old when the Nazis invaded Holland. And then the changes begin. Rachel coulen't go to her school any more, and she wasn't allowed to enter the park. And the Nazis took Rachel's bike away. Finally, she was forced to wear a yellow star- all because she was a Jewish girl. When the Nazis closed in, Rachel's family went into hiding, Rachel's family was moving house to house in the middle of the night. I liked this book because it was interesting.

I first read this book at twelve, and I believe that one of the reasons it's been so unforgettable to me is the fact that I had never read a book written in the present tense before and hadn't known a book could be written in anything but the past tense. It inspired me to use the present tense in my own writing; in this book, the present tense coupled with the tense times and situations the Hartog family must go through makes the story more compelling, immediate, haunting, and page-turning. A story written in the past tense tells us that everything has already happened, but in the present tense, we're living right in each new moment and don't know what might happen next.

I didn't really take notice of this till I recently read it again for the third time, but time really does pass too quickly here; we aren't told how much time has passed between most of the events, and Rachel, who was eight years old in 1940 when the book began, is turning twelve years old in hiding when the book is only about half over. But it only makes sense; Rachel and her little sister Esther are just young children and wouldn't have the same perception of time that an older person would. A person who experienced these events as a teenager or adult would certainly tend to remember in detail how much time had passed after each important event and what all they were doing during the time periods that weren't written about, but a young child is more likely to remember things and people than specifics about the exact passage of time or every little thing that happened. And Rachel sees everything through the eyes of a child, not a mature adult who would have more perspective on these events.

Though the family is happily reunited at the end (even with Rachel and Esther's maternal grandparents), the way Ida Vos and her little sister were reunited with their parents after the war, the story doesn't end there like some childrens' books on this subject might. The family still has to come to terms with all of the missing and dead friends and relatives, finding a new house, catching up in school, having to break out of habits they acquired while in hiding or in the camps (such as Rachel and Esther praying a Christian prayer before meals and their grandfather stealing old bread from garbage cans), and readjust to doing all of the things they were forbidden to do before, like ride bikes, go to school, walk around freely, go swimming, and go shopping whenever they want to. Though it's for a younger audience and thus can't go into the same harrowing detail that an adult book of this nature would, it gets the story and its impact across powerfully.

During a time of war, families are split apart, confusion is prevalent and innocent people get hurt. World War Two is the setting for Ida Vos's Hide and Seek. The Hartog family lives in a small town near Holland and knows that the invasion of the Germans is inevitable. The Hartog's are a prominent Jewish family and contribute much to their community. Their oldest daughter, Rachel, experiences racial prejudice first hand.
Rachel and her family are forced to go into hiding as the Germans take over their city. The family is eventually split apart and Rachel has no way of communicating with her parents. Day by day she receives a total of deaths and can not help but feel overwhelmed that her family members may be one of those numbers.
Ida Vos allows the reader to feel the hurt and confusion that Rachel goes through. The questions that Rachel asks about the hatred of some people only contribute to the emotions of the reader. As one reads, they are lost in the setting and time of this war and feel as if they were there along side of Rachel.

How would you like it if everything was taken away from you, and you had nothing at all, not even your own stuffed bear, and your parents taken away from you, and everywhere you go, you had to wear a yellow star indicating that you are Jewish? Well, that is exactly what happened to Rachel and her younger sister, Esther, during World War II in Holland. They had to go into hiding from the Nazis, who were trying to blow the Jews to pieces. They were forced to live in small spaces, and constantly move from one place to the next, wondering if they were going to be killed.
The good thing was that they had nice and caring people living with them, and always having a solution to if the Nazis were going to kill them.
Throughout the three years, they were always being judged, which really put a hole in their hearts. But they learned to deal with it because they knew that God was always with them. To see if they survive the horrible events read Hide and Seek by Ida Vos.

What I really like about this book is htat Rachel had to get a start because she was Jewish. Then she couldn't go to school anymore. It was very sad because Jewish couldn't do anything. They could only do things at certain times.

This story was touching and sad. It happened when Rachel and his sister had to go into hiding. They had to meet new people that were called their aunt and uncle. I liked this story because it is very touching and interesting to me while I was reading this book.

I really liked this book because it has a scary part because the jews are trying to chase after them. They had to move from house to house. It is sad becasue she had to give away her bike because the Nazis were taking everything away from the Jews. She has been wishing for it for a while.

I think this book is great because I like books like this. One reason I liked this book is because when they had the black out it was exciting to read. The kids were really playful with each other, that's what I liked.

This book is about a girl growing up in Holland during World War Two. It describes how Rachel and her sister Esther have to go into hiding to avoid being seen by Nazi officials. Rachel and Esther, have to be split apart from her family over and over again. Rachel and Esther have to go through tons of very intense things. They have to hide during Nazi round ups and they hear the gunshot of a Jewish girl who was found and was killed. I liked this book because of all the suspense that happens in the story. I would give this book five stars.

Ida Vos' book Hide and Seek is written in short chapters that present snippets from the life of the main character, Rachel Hartog, during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. Rachel's first person, present tense narrative draws the reader into her experiences and increases their intensity. As the Nazi persecution of Jews increases, Rachel and her family go into hiding to escape being deported to concentration camps. Readers experience Rachel and her family's fears and hopes, culminating with the defeat of Germany and their freedom from hiding. The Hartog family must then rejoin the outside world--facing the horrible truth that most of their family and friends were murdered in concentration camps.

The treasure of this book is its details--Vos acknowledges at the end of the book that the story of Rachel Herzog is her own, and that she has tried to record her time in hiding as accurately as possible. Details such as Rachel and her sister's intense fear of going outside after the German defeat, caused by their many years of living inside in fear of discovery, and the letters her family received telling them of their relatives deaths in concentration camps add so much depth to the illustration of what it was like to have been Jewish in those times, to have been in hiding, and to have survived.