The Journey Back [Paperback]

Johanna Reiss (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 25, 1987

How does it feel to leave the people you've grown to love -- and go back to a family you no longer know?

Holland,1945 -- World War II has finally ended. For thirteen-year-old Annie de Leeuw and her sister Sini, Almost three years of hiding from the Germans in the upstairs room of a remote farmhouse have also ended. Saying good-bye to the courageous family who hid them is very difficult. And Annie finds that being home again isn't easy either. Her mother is dead; her father, distant and distracted. Sini is out dancing with the soldiers every night , trying to make up for lost time, and Annie's oldest sister, Rachel, has become a Christian. Soon Annie has another problem -- getting used to a new stepmother she cannot seem to please. Annie learns that though the fighting is over, some of the wounds of the war still remain. Her old home is gone. Now she must build a new life for herself.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grades 6-10--Johanna Reiss' moving sequel (HarperCollins, pap. 1987) to The Upstairs Room (HarperCollins, 1972) is a vivid testimony to all whose lives were changed forever by World War II. Narrated by the author, this compelling story of a Jewish family struggling to reunite after three years of separation and hiding from the Nazis becomes a very personal account of a young girl's coming of age in war torn Holland. This simple dramatization is poignant and heartwarming as Annie de Leeuw and her older sister, Sini, bid farewell to the kind family who hid them. Now it is time to pick up the pieces of their former life as they rejoin their father and another older sister. But their widowed father is remarried and their sister Rachel has become a devout Christian. Once again, life has turned upside down for Annie as she makes her own journey back. This is a superb performance and an essential purchase for all libraries.
Celeste Steward, Contra Costa County Library, Clayton, CA
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.

About the Author

Johanna Reiss was born and brought up in Holland. After she was graduated from college, she taught elementary school for several years before coming to the United States to live. Her first book for children, The Upstairs Room, was a Newbery Honor Book, an American Library Association Notable Children's Book, and a Jane Addams Peace Association Honor Book, and it won the Jewish Book Council Juvenile Book Award and the Buxtehuder Bulle, a prestigious German children's book award. Mrs. Reiss writes that soon after she had finished Tie Upstairs Room, she found "there was still something I wanted to say, something that was as meaningful to me as the story I had told in the first book, the story of a war. `The fighting has stopped'; `Peace treaty signed,' newspapers announce at the conclusion of every war. From a political point of view, the war is over, but in another sense it has not really ended. People are fragile. They are strong, too, but wars leave emotional scars that take a long time to heal, generations perhaps. I know this to be true of myself, and of others. And out of those feelings came The Journey Back, a story of the aftermath of the Second World War." Though Mrs. Reiss lives with her daughters in New York City, they make frequent visits to Holland to visit Mrs. Reiss's sisters, Rachel and Sini, and Johan and Dientje Oosterveld.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 13 and up
  
• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: HarperTrophy (September 25, 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0064470423
• ISBN-13: 978-0064470421
• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 4.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,201,550 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

JOHANNA REISS is the author of A Hidden Life: A Memoir of August 1969 and the classic young adult title The Upstairs Room, which Elie Wiesel praised in The New York Times Book Review as an "admirable account . . . as important in every respect as the one bequeathed to us by Anne Frank." She is the winner of the Newbery Honor, the Jewish Book Council Children's Book Award, and the Buxtehuder Bulle. She lives in New York City.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Bittersweet, November 16, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Journey Back (Paperback)

Although this book is an insightful recountanance of the rebuilding process after World War II, it does not completly fulfill the reader's interest in happened to Annie and her family later. It still has Johanna Reiss' intuitive, touching writing style, but fails to explain what becomes of the characters decades later. It instead depicts only about a year in their lives, in which a few eventful but rather unimportant things happen. It also leaves many questions unanswered that were presented and dwelled upon. I cannot imagine understanding or enjoying this book if I had not read its predecessor, "The Upstairs Room" first. The short introduction provided would fail to adequately aid someone who had not previously read the latter to understand the depth and humanity of this saga. I am pleased to say, however, that it is well written, sad yet strangely joyous, and thoughtful; all the qualities that give a book the potential to be a good one. If you are looking for Annie's complete life story post war, it will be fairly disappointing, but if you are merely interested in what occurs immediately afterward, this book is ideal.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "The Journey Back" By Johanna Reiss, March 27, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Journey Back (Paperback)

After reading "The Journey Back" I am more aware of the hardships, dangers, and deprivations Jews and others went through after World War II. The story takes place in Holland, and its about what happens to the members of a Jewish family after the war ends, and they return home. The main character in the sotry is a thirteen-year-old girl named Annie de Leeuw. She and jer sister Sini might have been killed if it weren't for the Oostervelds, the courageous family who hid them for three years. The other main characters are Annie's father and her oldest sister Rachel. When Annie returns home she finds that her family no longer knows one another. Her mother is dead; her father is distracted. Her sister Sini tries to make up for lost time by going dancing every night, and Rachel has changed her religion to Christianity. Another important character in the book is Magda, Annie's stepmother. No matter how hard she tries, Annie cannot seem to please her. To Magda, Annie is the most imperfect girl in the entire universe. She criticizes Annie's clothes, hair, manners, and about everything else. For this reason I think Annie's conflict is man vs. himself since she has to built a new life for herself. I like the book in general, though the end was a dissappointment since it didn't give details about what would happen to Annie and her family. I wish the author would explain things better, and not just leave some conflicts unresolved, like in the case of the mean stepmother. My predicitions for the future of Annie's family are that the stepmother will always be mean, and Annie will have to get used to her new life. I give the book four stars. Like I already said the end needs some work. I still think it's a very informative book, and it helped me learn more about Worl War II.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars DUTCH AFTERMATH, May 29, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Journey Back (Paperback)

This sequel to THE UPSTAIRS ROOM continues the story of young Annie, slightly lame, and her older sister, Sini, who have spent three years in hiding with a kind Gentile family. Now the war is over and they are all free to live together as a Jewish family in Holland, to pick up the shattered pieces of their lives after Nazi persecution. But nothing is that simple, for they are not quite the same people. The pre-War status quo can never be recreated after years of suffering and humiliation.

It is hard for Annie to leave the warm farm family who took them into their home and their hearts. Why does she experience so many conflicting emotions now that she is Free? Reluctance to leave her country haven; Despair over the endless quarrels between Sini and their father; Frustration at unsuccessful attempts to please a snobby, prejudiced step-mother. Why should she be forced to leave the family which has provided her with more than physical safety--who renew their offers of love and acceptance just as she is? What does the blended family have to tempt her, now that Sini wants to leave and Annie can not compete with her new sister-in-law?

Because the Nazi threat has been removed, the story obviously lacks the intensity and nervous anxiety of its more famous predecessor; the dangers are not life-threatening but soul-disturbing. Annie struggles to fit into a new role, yet her gratitude and childlike feelings are all directed to toward the Past. She was safe and comfortable with her wartime hosts even when the Nazis were suspicious, because she held a special place of love in their home. Can her father ever make it up to her? A thoughtful but somewhat disappointing read.