Customer Reviews

Silver Days

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I found this book in my local library, and I have enjoyed reading it over and over again. The Platt family is like many, going through tough times and trying to get over them. I found myself relating to Lisa many times during the story. I finished the whole book in two days. I just couldn't put it down. This is a must have for all young readers and should be in everyone's home library collection!

After the horrors of Nazi Germany, it seems a dream come true! The Platt family is together again, in America! But the dream is quickly overshadowed by the family's extreme poverty. Being a Jewish refugee during World War II is not easy, even in America. With strong german accents and barely enough money for food, every day is a strugle. ***Sequel to Journey to America***

I think Silver Days by Sonia Levitin was a great book. It deserves five stars. I think it really shows how hard it was for Jewish people to get a decent living when they fled from Nazi Germany. This great novel is a sequel to Journey to America. This story starts out where Journey to America left off. Lisa Platt and her family were awaiting tickets for a boat to America from their father, who already was in America. They had to wait one year in Switzerland for the tickets. They reached America just as World War II was beginning in Europe. When they saw their apartment, all they had for furniture were orange crates and beds. During this period, they endure racial discrimination. They feel that in order to get away from this is to move to California. When they get a house there, their treatment is about the same, but they believe it is much better than New York. At school, Lisa gets back to dancing after five years, but her teacher, who people call "The Nazi", does not allow her to take the classes until she practices. After her teacher accepts her into her class, she becomes one of the best dancers in the school. Along the way, she and her older sister Ruth fall in love. When they receive a letter from their old maid, they find out that what they have been missing is faith. In the end they go back to their roots, beliefs, rituals and everything they did in Germany, even though they wanted to be as American as possible.

"Silver Days",is one of the best books I've ever read.I enjoyed, "Journey To America", which is the sequel to,"Silver Days", but I liked "Silver Days", better. Believe it or not, I read "Silver Days" first because I couldn't find "JTA" at the time and I liked it just as much as if I had read the first book. That is good, because often if you read the sequel to a book first you don't understand it very well. But "Silver Days" wasn't like that at all. It was very well written and could become a book all by it's self.

Silver Days, by Sonia Levitin is a story about a family that comes from Germany to the United States. Their Family moves to the United States because there is a war going on in Germany and they run from the Nazis. Everyone tries to adjust to the United States. The family tries to adjust to the United Sates. The family suffers with little money. However when the family starts helping everything gets better.

The novel is set in the United States. The theme of the novel would be if you stick together you could go though anything. The characters Ruth and Lisa adjust the most in good in bad ways. Lisa starts doing the things she likes and what she did in Germany. Everyone was very proud of her. Ruth fits in great and everyone likes her. She has a problem and doesn't know how to solve it. My favorite part in the book is when everyone starts getting better. The ending of the book was satisfying...

The author's style was very good. It was like you couldn't put the book down. I think that the author gives to many details. The vocabulary was very easy I either knew or I had already learned it in school. The part of the book I really dislike is when something really bad happens everyone gets under a lot of stress. I would recommend this book from ages 9-15 to read this book. People who like to read books about when we had wars and would like to learn what it would be like being in the middle of the war and people being prejudice would like to read this book. ...[Five stars.]
HLW

The story I have chosen to write a review on is called Siler Days
by Sonia Levitin. It is a historical fiction book about a Jewish girl's life during the Holacost. Lisa Platt has moved to New York
from Germany to be safe from Adolf Hitler. Lisa lives with her mother and father and her two sisters Ruth and Annie. Lisa's family has very little money for food and a nice place to place to live. They struggle everyday to keep up with their very little money and their lives. The Platt's and Lisa never give up though. They have courage, hope and bravery. They're living through hard times but they hope to manage. This was a wonderful book and I hope others will read it. Sonia Levitin is a great writer so I suggest you read the other books she's written. If you decide to read Silver Days, have fun!

This book was great!! I have read it many times, and plan to read it more!! Sonia tells about the struggles of a German immigrant family, in the United States. The mother not knowing if her mother is alive, or was killed by the Nazi's. I reccomend this book strongly! :)

I think Silver Days by Sonia Levitin was a great book. It deserves five stars. I think it really shows how hard it was for Jewish people to get a decent living when they fled from Nazi Germany. This great novel is a sequel to Journey to America. This story starts out where Journey to America left off. Lisa Platt and her family were awaiting tickets for a boat to America from their father, who already was in America. They had to wait one year in Switzerland for the tickets. They reached America just as World War II was beginning in Europe. When they saw their apartment, all they had for furniture were orange crates and beds. During this period, they endure racial discrimination. They feel that in order to get away from this is to move to California. When they get a house there, their treatment is about the same, but they believe it is much better than New York. At school, Lisa gets back to dancing after five years, but her teacher, who people call "The Nazi", does not allow her to take the classes until she practices. After her teacher accepts her into her class, she becomes one of the best dancers in the school. Along the way, she and her older sister Ruth fall in love. When they receive a letter from their old maid, they find out that what they have been missing is faith. In the end they go back to their roots, beliefs, rituals and everything they did in Germany, even though they wanted to be as American as possible.

Letvin did a fantastic job on telling a wonderful story of a girl who comes to America fleeing from Hitler. The story is told well, and is a perfect use for classrooms studying the immigration unit,or just to read a great book.

In this second book in the Journey to America series Levitin
chronicles the emotional, social and financial struggles of the Platt family: German Jews who emigrated to New York City in 1940. Narrated by 14-15 year old Lisa, the middle daughter, this story
reflects the hardship of immigrants, social prejudice, and Lisa's
private efforts to discover her true self as a real American.

Papa, a former coat manufacturer, is reduced to peddling ties on the streets, while Mama's English limits her ability to find work as a baby nurse. Older sister Ruth, a committed scholar in school, seems so perfect and attractive to boys and little Annie easily endears herself to new--even adult--friends. Poor Lisa, with her dreams of becoming a dancer, is caught in the awkward teenage phase. Torn not only socially, she questions and resents both
her mother's old world views and her father's Embrace-the-New-World attitude. Are they scorned because they are German or Jewish? Or both? Where is justice to be found in America?

Driven to start over in sunny southern California Papa moves them across country where their lifestyle gradually improves, although not immediately and without interruptions, to the point that Lisa, in her diary, views it as the Silver Days of their family life. But World War II looms even larger on the west coast, where beaches are no longer safe for fear of enemy invasion. Lisa competes with her glamorous sister over boys; she wins dance awards despite brutal psychological treatment by "The Nazi" ballet mistress. Yet how much must the family suffer before the parents can hold up their heads in their former, valued, professions? How will WWII intrude upon their lives, change their plans, and reshape dreams? When will Mama stop blaming herself for not being able to rescue her aged mother, left behind? A serious study of the German Jewish immigration during a turbulent period for the world. A good introduction to the Jewish experience for girls 13 - 18.