Waiting for Anya - Softcover

Michael Morpurgo: The Master Storyteller. Former Children's Laureate Michael Morpurgo needs no introduction. One of the most successful children's authors in the country, and loved by children, teachers and parents alike. Michael has written more than forty books and won the Whitbread Award, the Smarties Award, the Circle of Gold Award, the Children's Book Award and has been short-listed for the Carnegie Medal four times. His novels have been adapted for film (My Friend Walter, Why the Whales Came) and stage (most recently, Kensuke's Kingdom for the Polka Theatre and Why the Whales Came by for Alibi.)

Grade 5-9-- In a village in southern France, only a few miles from Spain, Jo discovers that the Widow Horcada is sheltering Benjamin, her Jewish son-in-law, who is helping to smuggle Jewish children over the border. He is also waiting for his own child, Anya, from whom he was separated. When a garrison of German soldiers is sent to occupy the village in order to stop the flow of refugees into Spain, Benjamin needs the cooperation of the entire village to save the children. What Jo and the others learn, though, is that the Germans are human and that there are more similarities than differences among them. Readers do not see battles, but will witness their effects when Jo's father returns a sick and bitter man; they do not see the horrors of the death camps--it is enough to know that those who are taken away will not be seen again. Everything is seen through the eyes of one young, compassionate boy. There are no villains and no larger-than-life heroes, just human beings following what conscience or duty tells them is right. In its understated style and gentle telling of a harsh lesson, the story is reminiscent of Lois Lowry's Number the Stars (Houghton, 1989). --Susan M. Harding, Mesquite Public Library, TX
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