Customer Reviews

Someone Named Eva

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(5)
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Like the Diary of Anne Frank and Number the Stars, the book is about events of the Holocaust. What makes it different from the two mentioned is that it's about a chapter of the Holocaust that is not widely known - the destruction of the town of Lidice. This was a small village that Hitler tried to literally wipe off the map. Wolf's book takes you there through the eyes of Milada, a little girl taken from her Czech family and "adopted" into a Nazi family. I couldn't put the book down, and the story left me wanting to learn more about the Lebensborn program and the families of Lidice. Though written for a young audience (the heavy subject matter is handled gently but by no means "fluffy")it's must read for anyone - adults included - wanting to know more about the Holocaust.

A child in Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia, Milada received a prized telescope for her eleventh birthday although no gift was expected. Her father instructed his daughter to always look for the North Star to find her way. It was a time of shortages & ration cards and being fearfully hemmed in by soldiers who demanded Nazi salutes, and yanked families apart in the night.

Milada was not a Jew but in a contrary way was DISadvantaged by her blond, Aryan appearance for which she was chosen by the Nazis to be schooled in the German language & customs. Only then was she deemed suitable for adoption into a Nazi family. German mothers 'earned points' and gained prestige in Hitler's regime by increasing their families.

Her new "mutter" and siblings gave her desperately needed affection which caused a literal tug-of-war with emotions because "Milada/Eva" realized the same woman is wife to the commandant of the feared adjacent 'death camp' from which come pervasive crematorium odors. This issue is not dealt with 'head on' but is no more ambiguous than some issues which make adolescence so difficult in contemporary society. Life always means confronting hard choices, doesn't it? And readers in middle grades may find it helpful to read about 'someone named Eva' who hung on to life for Freedom's sake.

Readers can ask whether Milada/Eva was in the end better off, because she survived the war whereas her closest Czech friend, Terezie did not; also, four out of five of her own family members were sent to work camps
and did not survive. We can be grateful to Joan M. Wolf for enlightening us about these hidden aspects of war. If today's students read about a child damaged psychologically by incessant brain-washing who forgets her true birth name for a time, perhaps they will better stand up to the societal pressures which contend that today's conflicts can be solved only by going to war.

From the time Milada was taken from her family in Lidice, she felt protected by her grandmother's garnet star pin which she wore hidden in her clothing at all times. It became a talisman along with her beloved Babichka's words: "Remember who you are. Always." Reviewer McHaiku strongly suggests that families read this book & discuss it together. Each of us needs to learn the importance of retaining identity and purpose.

Milada, a gentile girl living in Czechoslovakia in 1942, is turning eleven on her next birthday. When the Nazi's converge upon her town, she is separated from her family and taken to a Lebensborn center in Poland for girls who have been deemed candidates to become perfect Aryans. Milada, who is not Jewish, resents her blond hair and blue eyes, knowing these are the reason she is chosen. Upon reaching the Nazi center, Milada's name is changed to "Eva" and she and the other girls are forced to speak German. During her stay at the center, "Eva" makes a friend, but also sees girls who fall under the spell of the Nazi brainwashing. She must summon all of her emotional strength to remember her real name and family. "Eva" secretly wears a pin given to her by her Grandmother with the warning "Remember who you are. Always." This book shows an aspect of the Nazi regime that is not commonly portrayed in children's literature. It is a chilling account of the psychological control the Nazi's had over their youngest victims. Milada has never met a Jewish person, so the Jewish content is limited to sympathetic references to the impact of the Nazi regime on the Jewish community. Someone Named Eva reveals evil through the innocence of a child's eyes. This is not a Jewish Holocaust story, but would make a formidable addition to any Holocaust collection. For ages 10 and up.

I read Someone Named Eva with my eleven year old daughter. She finished it first and couldn't wait for me to reach the end because she wanted someone to discuss it with. It is a book that you will want to discuss. Eva is taken from her family, and forced to become a perfect Aryan girl who must salute Hitler and condemn Jews and others that do not fit the Nazi mold of perfection. Throughout her ordeal, she remembers her family and her true self, sometime just barely, but she holds on to it. The book reveals just how hard it is to stay true to yourself and your loved ones when your home, your language, and your values are stripped away. Eva was chosen because she had the "correct measurements, " and was blue eyed and blond. How arbitrary our ways of judging people are from the outside in instead of the inside out is one of the themes in the book my daughter and I discussed. The story is beautifully told. Eva's understanding of the stars and the constellations acts as a sort of outer tapestry that holds the story together; from time to time she remembers learning about the stars from her loving grandmother, and in doing that, she remembers who she really and truly is.

Don't blink or you'll miss it. The arrival of a noteworthy work of historical fiction for kids tends to work one of two ways. Either the marketing machine behind the book hits bookstores and libraries full-force, cramming said book down everyone's throats until they yield and make it a bestseller/award winner... or nothing happens at all. The book slips onto shelves without so much as a squeak, never insisting that anyone go out of their way to find it. "Someone Named Eva" belongs firmly in the latter camp. It's small and subtle and extraordinarily good. The kind of WWII children's fiction other authors should look to emulate, given the chance.

Eleven-year-old Milada remembers the night. The night when there was pounding on the door and Nazis in her Czechoslovakian home. The night when her grandmother pressed a garnet pin into her hand and told her to never forget who she was. But since that time Milada had a difficult time keeping that promise. Having been forcibly removed from her family and taken to a bizarre Nazi-run girl's school, Milada quickly learns the reason for her presence in the Lebensborn center; her shiny golden hair and bright blue eyes. Renamed Eva, Milada is part of a system intent upon turning her into a "good" German citizen. The kind of place where she can be taught the evils of the Jews, the glory of Hitler, and the joys of being adopted into a real German family's home. Based on events following the destruction of Lidice, Czechoslovakia, author Joan Wolf tells of the real Lebensborn center in Poland, the crimes it committed against an untold number of girls during WWII, and what it takes to stay true to your heritage.

Did you notice something? Read the summary again. That's right. We're dealing with a WWII children's book that doesn't focus primarily on Jewish children. Not that there's anything wrong with more Holocaust novels, of course. They're often quite stunning. Just the same, there are an awful lot of them out there. So much so, in fact, that when I picked up this book and looked at the cover I decided on the plot immediately. Something along the lines of, "Ah. Here is a book about a blond Jewish child who passes as Christian so that she won't be sent to the concentration camps with her family." I was more than a little shocked when I sat down to read and found that my smug summary was way off base. In fact, my surprise didn't end there. Again and again, Wolf was able to give me facts from the time period that I had never ever encountered before. These included the fact that German women were awarded the "Mother's Cross" when they increased the number of children in their home. Who knew? Also, as someone who was more than a little peeved at how The Boy in the Striped Pajamas chose to ignore the fact that living outside a concentration camp meant dealing with a constant, pervasive, horrible smell, I appreciated that Wolf makes it practically the first thing Milada notices when she moves in with her new "family".

It's very instructive to watch how Wolf uses names in this book. The only other person in Lebensborn that Milada knows is Ruzha, a sullen mean-spirited girl from her home village. After the scene where each girl is given a new name, Ruzha becomes Franziska. Right from the start the girl embraces her Nazi teachers and their philosophy. It is worth noting then that as an author, Wolf often refers to Milada by her old name (at first) but rarely does the same with Ruzha. That particular girl's transformation is quick and complete. You get the feeling that when the war is done she will be happy to remain with the German family she has found, in spite of the continuing existence of her real parents. Of course, much of Ruzha's back story is left unknown. We don't know what kind of life or abuse she may have suffered in her own home. To be transported from a place where she was unhappy to a world where her teachers praise and seemingly love her is mighty significant. Though you may disagree with it, you understand where Ruzha is coming from.

Wolf is also very good at displaying the effectiveness of intense psychological brainwashing. When Milada says that, "it was hard to remember that I wasn't a Nazi, that I didn't want to be the Aryan ideal, that I hated Germany," you understand why she says this. The psychological damage inflicted on these girls must have been intense. Little wonder then that, as Wolf mentions in her Author's Note, "Very little has been written in English about the Lebensborn centers that housed kidnapped children, part of which may be due to the fact that so few children were found after the war." What's more, Wolf knows how to manipulate her reader so that we find ourselves in the same position as Milada. When she realizes with a shock that she can't remember her old name, I challenge you to remember it yourself. It's gone and as she wracks her memory, we wrack our own. Such a clever technique.

For the record, I also can't help but note that I never saw where the novel was going. Once Milada was in the school I wondered if this would turn into a kind of child vs. the establishment type of story. I couldn't imagine that that would be a good way to go, and indeed it could have been catastrophic to the novel. So while the sudden mention on page 100 that all the girls will now be adopted into new families shouldn't be shocking, it truly is. Sometimes the most obvious turns of fate are the least expected.

Distinguishing between "nice" and "good" proves to be difficult for most adults I know. Imagine how much harder it would be for a child who misses her mother and has a loving enemy there to give her whatever she wants. If for no other reason, Wolf allows her book to explore a moral ambiguity here that will undoubtedly lead to interesting conversations on the playground. Eva's new family consists of Nazis so they're evil, right? Except, look at how much they love her and want her to love them back. Look at how they wrestle and play and laugh. Look too at what their jobs are and what they're trying to destroy. Any book that makes a child ask what makes a person good or bad is worth giving them to read. "Someone Named Eva" makes sure to skip all easy answers.

My mind makes me pair books together. That's just how it works. And at some point, mid-way through a read of "Someone Named Eva", I realized that this book should be paired alongside The Night of the Burning: Devorah's Story by Linda Press Wulf. Both take place during WWII, and they deal with very different adoption journeys. You could create an entire reading unit out of these two books alone. It's almost as if they were made for one another, so perfectly to they complement and contrast one another's themes. Before you do that, however, you must read this book first. It's Joan M. Wolf's first book for children, and I want it to get a proper amount of attention. Books like this one don't write themselves. For a good jolt of historical fiction to the brain, "Someone Named Eva" may well be one of the smartest books of the year.

I read this book as part of my middle school English reading program. I usually like to read funnier books..with happier endings. This book was neither happy nor funny, but I am glad I read it. This book was a story about World War II and the Holocaust. I had always thought that the war was about destroying the Jewish people, but this book was about a young girl who was taken by the Nazi's and wasn't Jewish. She had blonde hair and light eyes so they thought she would make a good German. She was taken from her family and country and brain-washed. She forgot who she was. I don't want to give away the ending but it doesn't exactly end happy. I recommend this book.

I picked this book up for my daughter and read it before she did because I was curious about the book. All I can say is that is a fantastic book, even for adults. I really was moved by the story and encouraged my daughter to read it right after me so we could discuss it. She started it that afternoon and couldn't put it down. Joan M. Wolf, thank you for sharing this interesting story. It was one of the best books I have read this year.

I've read quite a bit of historical fiction set in Nazi Europe, but SOMEONE NAMED EVA by Joan M. Wolf takes a look at a part of World War II that I never knew about. Eva is really Milada - a young Czech girl who has blond hair and blue eyes that allow her to pass as a German. The Nazis raid her village and steal her from her family; they take her name, her language, and her very identity in an attempt to remake her into one of them.

This book is beautifully written, and I simply ached for Milada, renamed Eva, every time I turned a page. Wolf does an incredible job portraying this time period and writes with a sensitivity that allows us to understand how a young Czech girl could feel herself slipping into another identity.

The characters in this historical novel seem painfully real, and the author's extensive research, which took her to Czechoslovakia in search of her roots, is evident throughout the book. The author's note explains how that research is woven into the novel, though it never feels like you're being fed facts while you're reading. No matter how much you've read about the Holocaust, you'll come away with a new perspective. Mostly, though, your heart will break for Eva.

Joan Wolf's debut novel provides a unique perspective on a much-written-about chapter in world history. More than that, though, it provides readers with a heartbreaking and thought provoking journey through the human spirit - at its best and at its worst. SOMEONE LIKE EVA is a poignant book about survival, redemption, holding on, and remembering who you are.

Do you know what happened to girls classified as a perfect aryan child during World War II? After reading the book Someone Named Eva, by Joan M. Wolf, I found out! This book is about a Czechoslivakian girl named Milada and her family. She lives in Lidice, Czechoslovakia with her mother, father, brother, sister and grandmother. One night the Nazis come into her home and take her family and her neighbors to their school gym. Once there, Milada is inspected and is taken away from her family and friends. She is sent to a Lebensborn center in Poland. When she arrives, she finds the other girls have blond hair and blue eyes. In the center, the girls are taught how to be the perfect citizen. They are given new German names. Milada becomes known as Eva. After a few years in the center the girls are each adopted into a German family as they are the hope of Germany's future. Throughout this book Milada must do as her grandmother said; "Always remember who you are, Milada. Remember where you are from. Always". Can she remember? I give this book 5 stars! It had detailed writing and was an awesome book! Read Someone Named Eva to find out what happens to Milada.

As a reviewer, I read countless books each month. Some are very good, a few are excellent, and many are OK, but once in a blue moon, a book moves me. Someone Named Eva is a book that really moved me.
A Highly Recommended Book
Someone Named Eva is historical fiction for middle readers ages 9-12. It is written from the perspective of a Czech girl who is forced by the Nazis to leave her home in Lidice. She is selected as part of a group of Aryan children (the Nazi's opinion of the "pure" race) due to her facial features, blond hair and blue eyes. She is swiftly plucked from her family, forced to attend a special program living in a dormitory in Lebensborn, Poland and treated with special privileges. It was here that she was forced to change her name, learn to speak German and become a "proper" Aryan girl under the auspices of Adolf Hitler. While spending 2 years in the program, not knowing what happened to her siblings, parents and grandmother, "Eva" struggles to keep her original identity alive in her mind, because she is not allowed to speak about her family and her former life. Outside of the school, she has more extraordinary experiences that test her resilience to survive.

What I love about Someone Named Eva is that the story is engaging from the very first sentence, and the words flow naturally off the page like maple syrup off a tall stack of hotcakes. The book educates young readers about an aspect of World War II that many children may not already know - that Jewish people were not the only victims of the Holocaust. The author does a beautiful job of portraying the innocence of a young child and how she ever so gradually comes to understand the many atrocities of Hitler, especially in her hometown of Lidice. Ironically Eva was treated with special privileges in many ways, yet was a prisoner nonetheless. All the sensitive subject matter of the war is appropriately handled in the book with grace and taste, ideal for the target age group of the readers.

Ms. Wolf traveled to the Czech Republic, where her Great Grandmother was born, and to Poland to do research about WWII to write the book. It was there that she met several people former Lidice children themselves, who shared their compelling and inspiring stories of survival with her. Someone Named Eva has been widely read by educators and young readers of the English language and has also been translated into French and Korean. I highly recommend the book - not just to middle readers and young adults - but to all who enjoy a beautifully written story set in a place and time we must not let ourselves forget.

Someone Named Eva is sure to remain an important piece of literature for generations to come, and I'm so grateful I had the chance to enjoy it.