Customer Reviews

Waiting for Anya (Lythway Large Print Children's Series)

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

 

 

I first read this book when I was twelve, and I've picked it up nearly every year since then. It has unfortunately been deemed an "adventure" story, but it is not. Nor is it a Holocaust story. It is a novel that goes deep into the human condition and touches on aspects of friendship, death, love, growing up, and human decency. It is filled with characters who are real, characters who overlook their time and place, and ultimately sacrifice themselves for what they believe in. The book is sad but not morbid; poignant but not sentimental. I have gone on to read so many other books, but I have always come back to this one with a love and respect I have for few other books--children's or otherwise.

The book Waiting For Anya was very well written. It is a story about a boy named Jo who is a shepard in France during World War II. He finds out that an old widow who lives in his town (The "Black Widow") has, along with her son-in-law been hiding Jews from the Germans. The story gets complicated as twenty-two German soldiers move into Jo's village. Jo is swept up in the Jew's crisis and is determinded to help them escape. The story further unravels as Jo's father (a POW) comes home. Time is running out for the Jewish children. Jo's bravery, and the heartbreaking conclusion make this a wonderful book for people of all ages to read.

What a shame that this excellent novel has been, for several years, sitting on my shelf, completely forgotten, until a couple hours ago. I fully enjoyed reading it. The characters were complex yet realistic. I loved the relations among the characters, the wide spectrum of topics it concerns, and the bittersweet ending. A superb book for people of all ages.

I have only cried while reading two books. This was one of them. Though about the Holocaust, this story is not a history lesson. But you do learn another side of a very complicated time period. The well-developed characters brought the story to life for me. I've read it many times and always find something new in each reading.

This book got my heart deeply from the very first chapter.It is about a boy named Jo.His father was sent to war and was later a prisoner-of-war for a long time.This period is during the Second World War.Jo misses his father very much.One day,he was watching his sheep and felt like sleeping.He drifts into sleep leaving his sheep unattended.He wakes up to hear Rouf(his dog)barking and the sheep bleating.As Rouf was barking,Jo saw a bear.Panicstrikken,he ran down to the village and yelled for help.The men in the village came rushing out and were very excited as they had never shot a bear.Once they had shot the bear,they predicted that it was a female.Jo immediately went up to search for Rouf and finds him near a bear cub.Coincidentally,he met a man whom he had never seen but yet he recognised the man's face.The man offered the bear cub some milk and talked with Jo as if he knew him.Suddenly the man asked him to forget that day and not to tell anyone about what happened that day.Jo promises.Later he found himself helping the man named Benjamin to send Jewish children over to Spain.When Jo's little town was occupied by the German and more and more patrols were being held,it is hard to smuggle the children up into the mountains of Spain.I felt very anxious for Jo and Benjamin.Benjamin is also waiting for his daughter,Anya be able to arrive at the village.Will Anya be able to arrive at the little village? Will Jo and Benjamin and Jo be able to smuggle the children over? Read this book.

I read "Waiting For Anya." This book is a great book to read. This book is about the way the Jews were fighting in the Holocast. This book takes a little while to get into but by the end you are taken in by the book. It made me feel unhappy to think of what happened to the people in this book. It helps to understand how heartless some people can be and your family is the strongest bond yet. This is a great book to learn on the Holocast and to read for yourself.

waiting for anya is very realistic. Set in war time. saving jewish children. a bit of humor in it too. if, your one of those who wanders what it's like to live in war. u should read this.

This book was really interesting. This book was partly about survival and I love books about survival. The story of this book was so interesting that I couldn't stop reading this book. But it was sad that Benjamin and Leah were sent to concentration camps and they never got a chance to see his daughter Anya. I wonder what would of happened if Benjamin did meet her. It would probably make the story longer. This book was very descriptive

Twelve-year-old Jo is a shepherd boy in a French mountain village near the Spanish border; but his pastoral life is abruptly changed when Nazi soldiers are garrisoned in his peaceful hamlet. Having worked to help the family during the four years that his father has been a POW, the youth meets a red-bearded stranger in the hills--precipitating excitement, new purpose and great dangers. For Benjamin is hiding with his mother-in-law (a widow with the reputation of a witch), while waiting for his daughter to sneak back home through occupied France. Jo is stunned to discover that the adult pair are part of an underground railroad, ferrying Jewish children through the country across to Spain. How can he not help this noble cause, yet how can he keep his humanitiarian activities a secret from Maman and Grandpere?

The story reads easily with plenty of dialogue, action and increasing tension which culminates in the inevitable confrontation with the enemy. There is a fine line between Collaboration and making the best of a hateful situation; no one can be blamed for putting a priority on self-preservation. The author provides gentle thematic substrata to the obvious plot; mutual atempts for international cooperation
and even sympathetic understanding. People are human, after all, with similar values and upbringing, despite the language barrier. Unfortunately, serious events keep reminding friendly Jo that these soldiers are still the Eneny. This is a good juvenile thriller about French resistance and the Jewish experience. (Other books with this theme of Resistance to the Nazi invasion: The Little Riders--Holland, Snow Treaure--Norway, and Twenty Plus Ten (also France.)

This story is boring it would have been better if it would have had more action.