The Doll with the Yellow Star
Grade 3-5–Eight-year-old Claudine is a Jewish girl living in occupied France during World War II. Her loving parents try to keep her life as normal as possible, and even manage to buy her a lovely new doll for her birthday. But after the Germans decree that Jews must wear a yellow star, things begin to change for the worse, and soon Claudine's parents decide to send her to America to live with her aunt and uncle. She convinces them to let her take Violette, on whose clothes she has also sewn a tiny yellow star. But at the end of the voyage, her toy gets lost, and Claudine wonders if she will ever see it or her parents again. Her journey, adjustment to life in America, and eventual reunion with her father make up the bulk of this story, but what is missing is any true sense of what it feels like to leave behind everything that you know and face an uncertain future in a strange new place. Although nicely written and generously illustrated with watercolors, many events in the book feel contrived, and the reunion of Claudine with her doll in the end seems less of a miracle than merely a device to wrap things up. Vera W. Propp'sWhen the Soldiers Were Gone(Putnam, 1999) is a better choice for showing the impact of the war on children separated from their parents. A well-meaning yet additional purchase.–Teri Markson, Stephen S. Wise Temple Elementary School, Los AngelesCopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.