Escape--Teens on the Run

Escape--Teens on the Run
By Linda Jacobs Altman
Enslow Publishers, 2010. 128 pgs. Young Adult Nonfiction

Based on primary research, this is a collection of anecdotes about Jewish teenagers fleeing the Nazis before and during WWII. While the experiences vary, from those who acquired visas and travel papers and emigrated from Europe to those who were actually rounded up and escaped from trains headed for the death camps, they combine to show the frightening reality for teens who had to escape in order to survive.

While the experiences included in the book are certainly moving, the actual presentation was somewhat lacking. Sometimes the transitions from story to story didn't flow well, and there were a few times when a story wasn't completed satisfactorily (such as a girl who had a premonition to run away--did that premonition save her life? Did something happen after she left? The reader never finds out.) The format of the book is good, with photos and maps, and, as I said, the stories themselves are compelling, but I wish the book had been put through a more rigorous editing process.

AE