Customer Reviews

No Pretty Pictures: A Child of War

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This was a really moving, beautiful book. I think in the book, Anita Lobel depicted the opinions and feelings of a child and teenager very realistically. The book is easy to read and a real page-turner. It is written in a very clear, simple style so that the reader is able to sympathise and understand the character's feelings. Anita Lobel is able to write the book in a way that shows that she doesn't pity herself for what happened during the Second World War in Poland. The author never overexaggerates or overemphasizes the situations that she experiences. What really stunned me about her character as a child, was that she confronted every situation very bravely and maturely. As a child, Anita Lobel was thankful for any small improvement in her life during the war.

Summary:
In 1939, when Anita Lobel was five, German soldiers marched into Krakow. Anita's father, the owner of a chocolate factory and a Jew, runs away in the middle of the night. As a child, Anita Lobel spent years hiding from the Nazis and trying to protect her little brother. The two children have to work through assumed identities, a dangerous stay in the Krakow ghetto, hiding in a convent, and much more! They were captured and marched from camp to camp. Finally, in 1945, they were reunited with their parents and they had to learn to live all over again.

My thoughts:
This book touches your heart in a way few books do. Told from a child's point of view, using a very child-like voice, the story leaps out of the pages and into your mind. This book is written by an illustrator of beautiful picture books like Potatoes, Potatoes, and On Market Street. The title, No Pretty Pictures, seems to reflect her drawing career. In one example, when she first was allowed to enter school after the war, she was sent to an art class. There, she was given a blank piece of paper, a pencil, and a set of new watercolors. She painted a wonderful blue chair, to the delight of her art teacher and the other students. She hasn't stopped painting since.

One moral that simply explodes out of this book is to never give up. No matter what life throws at you - starvation, imprisonment, hiding, or whatever - you can persevere. Anita overcame all of the obstacles placed in front of her, either by herself or with the help of others, and has created a spectacular life for herself. If she can succeed despite such odds, so can everybody else.

I think children would love to read this book when they are old enough to get all the way through it. At almost 200 pages, it is not a quick book to read. But it is a gripping, page-turning story - one of those kind that you can't put down. I think children will be drawn to the child-like voice of the story, the innocence the author manages to use. Anita Lobel is one of those truly gifted authors that can tell a horrible story about a child, for a child, without sounding condescending or self-pitying.

Facsinating, in a word, describes Anita Lobel's book " No Pretty Pictures". Even though I am 33 years old I found her book to be incredibly interesting (even though it's claimed to be a "young adult book). I have always been interested in the Holocaust survivor stories, and "No Pretty Pictures" takes you on a roller coaster ride of ups and downs of one survivor and her younger brother. Anita Lobel's way of describing her memories make you feel like they happened yesterday. The way she relates the story through her long ago child's eye to the teenaged, more mature eye leaves the reader in awe of her ability to tap into shelved but not forgotten memories. I highly recommend this book to everyone. Even old adults (like me), would surely find this book inspiring and unforgettable. I will never forget it, it made me appreciate everything in my life a lot more.

This book is a tragic adventure. Anita Lobel recalls the arrival of the Nazis and the end of her childhood as she knew it. I was thankful this book was a fast read, the suspense of what would happen to Lobel and her brother was too much at times. The writing is beautiful and appropriate for young readers as well as adults. Beautiful photos.

No Pretty Pictures, A Child At War

No Pretty Pictures is about a young girl who has to find her way back to her religion while she tries to understand the meaning of life. She starts out as a normal girl but with one difference. She was a Jew at a wrong time. Her name is Hannah. She has a little brother, a mom, dad, and a nanny. (The nanny is Christian.) Her dad left her and her family when she was five to go and fight in Russia; that is when things go wrong.
People know about the holocaust but few of us have lived through it. Well, this story is about a girl that does. When she was five years old she had to leave to go to a concentration camp. She leaves with her brother, and soon realizes that her life will never be the same. Her mom has papers that say she is a Christian so she doesn't have to go to the camp, but Hannah and her brother don't.
She goes through many hard times, and wonders if she will ever see her parents again. She was in the camps and away from her family for about six years, but she was away from her father the longest. Her father left and was not heard of until six years later when Hannah was in the hospital because she and her brother were diagnosed with tuberculosis. She was put in a hospital for more than three years but she was able to go to a real city. There, she learned the true meaning of life with a little surprise.
I really enjoyed this book. Many books have been written about World War II, but I feel like this one gives a better understanding about what really happened during the holocaust. I think that this book did have its strengths and it weaknesses. One strength is that it gave a good look at what happens to the kids that were in the holocaust, let alone everyone else. It made me feel like I was actually in the book, and it gave great detail about what happened to them and how they felt about the Nazis. One weakness was that it didn't give a clear description about how her family was reacting to the holocaust. Also, her dad left, but then he shows up in the end, but we don't really know what happened to him.
I would recommend this book to anyone who likes learning about a new religion, and for someone who enjoys getting into a good book. I would not recommend this book to someone who was younger than nine because it is a harder book to read. I had many "favorite" parts in the book. Most of my favorite parts were the action parts. Many times they would talk about how the Nazis would treat Jews, and it made me feel like I was in the book, and I was one of the Jews who were being tortured.
This book made me think of a lot of questions. Some of them were, how would she react to the new change? How does her mom feel about her family being in the camps, and not her? Did Hannah ever lose hope? How would her brother feel about the experience? And to my surprise, all of them were answered.
I would definitely read this book again because it was so good, and I would still be surprised at some parts. I think this is the best book I have ever read about the holocaust. I hope that the author will try to make a book as good as this one once again.

I love this poignant memoir. Everyone I give it to reads it start to finish usually in either one sitting or over a period of a couple of days.

We have read portions to my daughter (age 8) who is familiar with and interested in the Holocaust. I think that my daughter found it empowering to know that against great odds Anita did survive.

Knowing Anita and her works over a period of many years, I never really knew her true story until I read her wonderful book.

I highly recommend it.

Imagine playing hide-and seek, but you are hiding from the German Nazis because you are illegal. Every time they get close to you, a new hiding spot must be found, or your life will be put on the line. During the Holocaust, young Hanusiu played by these rules everyday. Told from a child's point of view, No Pretty Pictures is the memoir of Anita Lobel, earlier called Hanusiu, and her journey through the secrets, tears, and sacrifices of the Holocaust. Ms. Lobel did an amazing job describing everything that happened to her in those fatal years. One part that held excruciating description was when Hanusiu was forced into her first Concentration Camp. I felt as though I was walking into the camp alongside Hanusiu. The other prisoners, barracks, nervousness, and overall feeling of pain were expressed in a way that I cannot believe was seen through a child's eyes. Another major event that took place was when Hanusiu was diagnosed with tuberculosis after she had been rescued. She was forced to stay in a sanatorium for about a year and a half to cure the chronic disease. I could feel her hope and insecurities as each day passed, knowing that she might never get out. I recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a clear picture of what happened during the Holocaust, supported with lots of description, and seen through a true survivor's eyes.

How does a five year comprehend the horror of war? This outstanding autobiographical piece by Anita Lobel explores this question by allowing us to experience her early life as a Jewish child during World War II. Unlike Anne Frank, Anita was merely five years old when she had to begin to cope with the effects of war. She awakens one morning to have the world as she knows it changed. Her father has left the country and does not appear in the evening at his regular time. Nazi soldiers come to the house and confiscate personal belongings from the family. Anita's mother obtains false papers which enable her to continue working, but eventually the threat of relocation becomes more serious. Anita and her younger brother must leave with their Nanny to find a safer place. Thus begins an incredible and frightening journey that would be a challenge for a full grown adult to surivive. Anita and her brother must cope with their spiritual identity as they face extreme physical and emotional danger. I would highly recommend this to adults and teens. From the first page you are swept into this child's life and it's hard to let go.

As I am interested in the life of Jews of Krakow before the war, I found this children's book in the library's catalog. The information is very good, she writes very well and I hope she will be spared future torment. I remain particularly impressed by the positive attitude she seems to have as an adult in the U.S.A.

Mesmerizing and haunting, riveting and very moving. As others have noted, this book pulls no punches. It is graphic, and what it describes is not pretty. But she writes with such vivid clarity that you are right there, experiencing her terrifying, disintegrating world through a child's eyes, ears, and nose. Lobel's writing is deceptively simple -- with her direct style she pulls you into the confusion and conflict of her world and her own feelings and fears. You feel what she felt -- terror of the German language, love for Sweden, the blessing of getting lost in her first act of creation, ambivalence about being Jewish.

Though the subject matter is tough, this is an appropriate book for children over the age of ten if it is accompanied with discussion and information about the context of the war and Nazism. Because Lobel is writing through a child's eyes, the material is presented in a way that mature children would probably be able to relate to and handle well.

I found this book hard to put down, and when I wasn't reading it, I spent much of the day thinking about it. I am 44, mother to a three year old and a six year old, and more than once while reading this book I would go in to their room and look at my sleeping children and imagine what it would be like for them, and what it was like for little Hanusia (Anita Lobel's childhood name) to be suddenly torn away from all they'd ever known and threatened with death on a daily basis for more than five years as they moved from hiding place to hiding place. And I would count my blessings.

This book is unforgettable, and highly recommended.