Prisoner in Time: A Child of the Holocaust [Paperback]

Pamela Melnikoff (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 2001 | Age Level: 11 and up | Grade Level: 6 and up

When the Nazis take twelve-year-old Jan’s family away, Jan finds shelter with friends. But a year in their attic becomes too much for him and he ventures into the dangerous streets of the city, where he finds refuge in the old Jewish cemetery and the tomb of Rabbi Loewe, who created a legendary giant—the Golem—to save his people from oppression in sixteenth century Prague. Jan travels back in time. Will he find a way to escape from the fate that was to befall a million and a half Jewish children in Nazi-occupied Europe?

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Gr 5-8-This blend of history, fantasy, and legend adds little to the growing body of Holocaust literature. The convoluted plot involves Jan, a Jewish boy from 1940s Prague who grew up on stories of Rabbi Loewe's Golem. After taking a forbidden walk from the house where he is hiding, he discovers an amulet that takes him back to Rabbi Loewe's time. Throughout the rest of the story he goes back and forth in time, ultimately ending up in the Terezin concentration camp, where, just when he plans to escape to the past to prevent his deportation to Auschwitz, the amulet is stolen. The mix of reality and time travel is not totally successful. Jan's life in Terezin lacks the horror of some other camps, which, combined with his magical ability to leave, makes his deportation especially bleak and unexpected. The historical information seems fairly accurate, and the inclusion of the famous poem "The Butterfly," written by an actual resident of Terezin, adds power and pathos to the book. However, Melnikoff's stilted prose and awkward plot ultimately prevent the book from rising to the top of a crowded genre. Religious libraries needing fiction about the Terezin camp may want to consider it, but others can pass.

Amy Lilien-Harper, The Ferguson Library, Stamford, CT

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Gr. 6-10. While Jan, 12, is hiding from the Nazis in Czechoslovakia in 1942, he finds an amulet that takes him back to sixteenth-century Prague, where he helps the famous Rabbi Loewe create the legendary monster Golem to scare the racists who accuse the Jews of murdering Christian children. When Jan returns to his own time, he's transported to Terezin concentration camp. The historical parallels are important (anti-Semitism didn't begin with the Nazis, and many readers will want to pursue the Golem legend), but most of this honest docunovel is about what it was like to be a teenager in Terezin. Through Jan's eyes, Melnikoff presents the daily horror and brutality, and she includes some famous people (among them, Friedl Dicker-Brandejsova, who ran secret art classes for children) and true events, like the Nazis' prettying up of Terezin for Red Cross inspection. Unlike Jane Yolen's Devil's Arithmetic (1988), there's no slick upbeat ending to the time travel. Like nearly every one of the 15,000 children at Terezin, Jan is sent to a death camp. Hazel Rochman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 11 and up
  
• Paperback: 142 pages
• Publisher: The Jewish Publication Society; 1 edition (May 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0827607350
• ISBN-13: 978-0827607354
• Product Dimensions: 11.6 x 4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,040,371 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #62 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Children's Books > People & Places > Biographies > Other
  • #84 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Children's Books > History & Historical Fiction > Fiction > Holocaust

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