Run, Boy, Run (Mildred L Batchelder Honor Book (Awards)) [Hardcover]

Uri Orlev (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 10 and up | Grade Level: 5 and up | Series: Mildred L Batchelder Honor Book (Awards)

Run, Boy, Run is the extraordinary account of one boy’s survival of the Holocaust. Srulik is only eight years old when he finds himself all alone in the Warsaw ghetto. He escapes into the countryside where he spends the ensuing years hiding in the forest, dependent on the sympathies and generosity of the poor farmers in the surrounding area. Despite the seemingly insurmountable odds, several chases, captures, attempted executions, and even the loss of his arm, Srulik miraculously survives.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Reviewed with Jerry Spinelli's Milkweed.Holocaust survivor stories for teens run the risk of being either too brutal or too sentimental. These two novels avoid sensationalizing the violence because, in each case, the protagonist is a child too young to understand what's going on, which distances the horror. In both books the child is saved, but there's no radiant uplift about rescuers. Yes, some heroes do hide the children and help them, but as John Auerbach shows in his adult autobiographical story collection, The Owl and Other Stories [BKL S 15 03], which centers on escaping the Warsaw ghetto, luck and wild coincidence were a large part of what enabled a few to live.

Part survival adventure, part Holocaust history, these novels tell their story through the eyes of a Polish orphan on the run from the Nazis. Orlev is a Holocaust survivor, and his award-winning novels about being a child in the Warsaw ghetto, including The Man from the Other Side (1991), are widely read. This new story is not based on his own experience, but it does come from real life--the experience of an illiterate ghetto survivor who escaped into the Polish countryside, stealing, foraging, begging, working. The boy is nurtured by some and hated by many. He hides his circumcision and invents a Catholic identity; he forgets his real name, his family, and the street where he lived. In one unforgettable incident, he loses his right arm because a Polish doctor refuses to operate on a Jew. He survives, immigrating to Israel, where Orlev hears him tell his story. The narrative is simple and spare, factual about everything from hunting with a slingshot to making a fire with a piece of glass, and it's always true to the viewpoint of a boy who thinks he is "about nine."

In contrast, Spinelli's narrative is manic, fast, and scattered, authentically capturing the perspective of a young child who doesn't know if he's a Jew or a Gypsy; he has never known family or community. He lives by stealing; his name may be Stopthief. Unlike Orlev's protagonist, this boy lives in the ghetto, where the daily atrocities he witnesses-- hanging bodies, massacres, shootings, roundups, transports--are the only reality he knows. His matter-of-fact account distances the brutality without sensationalizing or lessening the truth. He first finds shelter with a gang of street kids, where one fierce older boy protects him, invents an identity for him, and teaches him survival skills. Later he lives with a Jewish family. The history is true, so although Spinelli's narrator is young, the brutal realism in the story makes this a book for older children. Both novels end with what seems to be a contrived escape, though in Orlev's story, the ending is true. Add these stirring titles to the Holocaust curriculum; the youth of the protagonists allows them to ask questions and get answers that will help readers learn the history. Hazel Rochman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

"Mesmorizing and memorable." Kirkus Reviews, Starred

"The narrative is simple and spare, factual about everything from hunting with a slingshot to making a fire with a piece of glass, and it's always true to the viewpoint of a boy who thinks he's 'about nine.'" Booklist, ALA, Starred Review

"...the story is totally engrossing as it vividly describes the hardships faced by so many youngsters during the war. Orlev has once again successfully used historical fiction to illustrate the Holocaust experience." School Library Journal

"Part of the strength of Orlev's writing rests with its spareness...in this novel of heartbreaking resilience." Horn Book

"This is one of the better examples of Holocaust fiction in depicting the vagaries of human nature as villainous and heroic acts emerge unexpectedly, even casually, from a shifting wartime population threatened with catastrophe." The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

"Orlev...devotes this memorable novel to the extraordinary true story of an orphaned Jewish boy's experiences in Poland during the war." Publishers Weekly

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 10 and up
  
• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Books for Children; None edition (October 27, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0618164650
• ISBN-13: 978-0618164653
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,699,500 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THIS IS ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS I'VE EVER READ, June 14, 2005

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Run, Boy, Run (Mildred L Batchelder Honor Book (Awards)) (Hardcover)

This is one of the best books I've ever read. Uri does a very good job telling about the children of the holocaust. The book is about a Jewish boy named surlick. Surlick loses his family and has to live by himself. Surlick meets many kind people who let him live with them. Surlick also finds out that not all the nazi soldiers are cruel to Jews. I liked this book because it shows you what it was like to be Jewish during world war two. If you want to find out what happens to surlick you should read the story. Some other books I recommend by Uri are THE ISLAND ON BIRD STREET, THE MAN FROM THE OTHER SIDETHE LADY WITH THE HAT, and the LED SOLDIERS

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Worth Reading, June 28, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Run, Boy, Run (Mildred L Batchelder Honor Book (Awards)) (Hardcover)

The book is well written and tells a remarkable story. It's a good book to read along with a teen/pre-teen to talk about what the reality of war, anti-semitism, etc. The fact that it is told from a child's perspective makes it all the more compelling. A few themes are mature (a brief mention of animals mating, a glimpse of a romantic meeting between a girlfriend/boyfriend), so I wouldn't recommend it for a child below the age of 11 or 12, unless you are comfortable explaining!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lizbook01 Review, April 6, 2011

By 

Mark A. Duce - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Run, Boy, Run (Paperback)

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