Customer Reviews

Your Name Is Renee: Ruth's Story As a Hidden Child (World War 2)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is the story of a young Jewish girl and her family that have to hide from the Nazi in Southern France. The story is terrifying, but real. The author shows just how scary it must have been for a small child. The story is beautifully written, you won't be able to put it down. This book is one that all should read. The Nazi invasion is a part of our history, and after this book, you will understand and feel what it must have been like to be Jewish in the 1940s.

Your Name is Renee effectively details the story of a young girl and her family in France during the Shoah. The book is well-written, compelling and concise, while still being appropriate for older children and young adults. The far reaching appeal of the story is distinctive. My ten year old son read the book after I did and could not put it down. He also was able to easily empathize with the characters in the book and cried with both relief and anguish when he finished, trying to understand how both goodness and evil could have lived together during this time. This book in particular teaches a lesson in the goodness that comes from people in terrible times. I feel that it should be required reading for junior high school children throughout the country.

"Your Name is Renee" is the unforgettable story of Ruth Kapp Hartz, told from her viewpoint as a child in Nazi-occupied France in the early 1940's. It is too compelling to read in little increments...you'll want to consume it from cover to cover in one sitting. The writing style is simple and tremendously effective, never distracting from the story itself. Mrs. Hartz's story should be required reading from middle grades on up. Hats off to Stacy Cretzmeyer for giving us such a gem.

When i was a senior in high school, the class read this book. A chilling, heart rendering tale of a horrible time in our history through the eyes of a victim too young to be so brave. While others griped about having to read yet another book. it was not long till all eyes in the class were glued to their books. The writing makes you want to continue, almost as if you stop reading then maybe you can close your eyes and act as though the horror never happened. Yet you continue out of a strange respect for this child. Luckily for our class after we had read the book and its end became known to all of us, our teacher had Stacey Cretzmeyer,the author, come and speak to our class. An awe inspiring moment for most of us. While origianlly she was there to talk about the writing of the book, it became abundanlty clear that even the toughest of kids where concerned about what had happened to that child. She informed us that she had been to a family reunion not to far long before this event.She passed pictures around the class and yes.there were tears shed as people were finally able to put faces to names we had only read about. The most poignant picture was of a group photo. A large smiling group of people looked back from the glossy page-and the most hard hitting moment that dawned on the class-and finally uttered by one of the biggest, quietest, hulking guys in the class- "They grew into such a large family" They had carried on. The Nazi's had lost in every way. Not just to U.S. bombers and fighters but to the unending spirit to survive, thrive and to flourish. Even Ten years after reading this book for the first(but not the last time) I look forward to reading this story with my own little girl.This story is so touching and leaves a mark on you that never fades from your memory.

I read this book in one night. It was compelling, heartbreaking, heartwarming and I felt as if I were there. I would love to know what happened after the book ended. I would love to know what became of Renee's friends, Jean-Claude and Emmy, who were in the orphanage with her. What became of her cousin Jeanette? Most of all, being a mother myself, I would love to know Renee's mother's perspective. She was an extremely brave, heroic, loving mother living a nightmare, trying to protect her young daughter. I'm sure she has an equally riviting story to tell. A wonderful book for all to read.

Imagine your five-year-old daughter sitting in school every day not knowing if Maman and Papa will even be there when she goes home. Then imagine telling your little girl she's going on a vacation with some friends, when you're really sending her to a convent orphanage and you may never see her again.
Ruth Kapp Hartz (alias Renee Caper) was that little girl. Her family fled to rural France during World War II. They spent a total of five years in hiding. When the war was over, Ruth had no memory of a time in her life when she wasn't in hiding. She had no idea what a normal life would feel like.

Ruth chose to have the story told from the point of view of the little girl she was rather than from the perspective of an adult looking back on the experiences. Early in the book this can at times get tiresome in its simplistic presentation, but after she gets to the orphanage it's not so noticeably childish. You can really get a sense of how it felt for a little Jewish girl in a Catholic convent---scared, confused, with the nuns insisting that her parents were dead. (They weren't told she was a Jewish refugee and believed she was really an orphan.)

Ruth/Renee didn't understand the Latin prayers, songs, and rituals of Catholicism, but had to pretend she was a blossoming Catholic girl. Her one Jewish friend had been sent to the infirmary, so she felt truly alone. What Ruth/Renee didn't understand was that Soreze was an orphanage for French children only. Her parents were German refugees, so they had to say she was someone else's child so she'd be allowed to stay at the orphanage until the war was over.

The book has a fairly narrow focus. It's an interesting look at the dailiness of the lives of Jews in France who were passing as non-Jews with false identification papers. While the Vichy government and Parisians were collaborating with the Nazis, many good country folk in Southern France risked their own hides to shelter, warn, and transport Jews throughout the war.

I read this book in fifth grade. It was one of the best books I have read. Me being a huge WWII fanatic who reads about it all the time. I was said when Uncle Heinrich didn't make it to the train i felt like crying because Ruth loved him and Jeanette. I have read many books like this like Number The Stars, Hitler's White Russians, The Russian Roots of Nazism, The Russian German War, but this book was nothing like those others it was incredible, fascinating, heart thumping, and most of all touching. Sure it was a little slow in the end, but it was still an incredible book.

Your Name Is Renee is an extraordinary book that captures the mind and spirit of the reader. It keeps you interested and has so much great detail that you just fall in love with the characters. I was truely amazed at how wonderful this book was. There were several reasons I found it so astonishing. There was great detail and information about the characters, events of WWII, and of the Holocaust. While you read this book you discover how hard the Jews had to work to stay unharmed and how scary it was for them for fear of being caught. You learn that everywhere they went they had to be cautious not to give themslves away as Jews. I love how you felt as if you were there. The events seemed so real. You especially felt sorry for the young children,such as Ruth (Renee was her fake French name), who had no idea what was going on, why families everywhere were being pulled away from eachother, and why her family was on a constant run. It was very emotional to learn about the Jew's struggles and ways of life during the Holocaust. Even children like Ruth had to adapt to this lifestyle and learn exactly what they should say around strangers to keep themselves safe. I got really into Your Name Is Renee, even catching myself yelling at characters for treating Ruth or another Jew cruely or taking something away from them. I mostly loved this book because I learned a lot about the Holocaust and who was involved during it. I also learned that the Jews always had to be alert no matter where they were and careful about who they trusted. Your Name Is Renee is a remarkable book full of suspicion, suspense, suffering, and support. I recommend to each and every person who likes or dislikes reading. Your Name Is Renee will astound everyone.

By David Smithberger

 Your Name is Renee' is an excellent book. It tells of a Jewish girl who must hide to survive. Ruth/Renee' must leave her family for what was thought to be a vacation. Her mother sent her with her family's closest friend to go to a Catholic orphanage. There the nuns tell her that both her parents are dead. Her father goes to work on a farm to hide from the Nazis because they are going after Jewish men. The family ends up surviving the war and they were not sent to a camp. Unfortunately the family on Ruth's dad's side have been killed in the camps. So I give this book a perfect score. This is a biography and that makes the story more believable.

This is the story written from the view of a 5 yr. old girl who is literally torn away from her parents where she is not old enough to understand what is happening. The story is heart rendering and a good one to start reading about the holocaust. Other books are far more compelling than this as regards what happens to people, but in the eyes of a youngster it is almost life ending for her and her friends. It seems there is another book or two awaiting to tell Ruth's parents' side of the story as well as possibly the Resistance Movement in and around the geographical area mentioned in this book.