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Yellow Star

Yellow Star is a Marshall Cavendish publication.



DESCRIPTION:

Binding: Hardcover
EAN: 9780761452775
ISBN: 076145277X
Label: Marshall Cavendish
Manufacturer: Marshall Cavendish
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 242
Publication Date: 2006-04-15
Publisher: Marshall Cavendish
Reading Level: Ages 9-12
Studio: Marshall Cavendish


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CUSTOMER REVIEWS:

Customer Rating:
Summary: Good, but not great
Comment: The story is inspirational, but the format will not appeal to all readers. If you (or your child) are expecting a traditional novel like I was, then "Yellow Star" may be disappointing.

The book consists of a series of poems put together to tell a story. The book is written using very simple word choices and does not offer many descriptive details. I didn't care for this style and would have preferred a more traditional narrative or even a diary-style for the story.

Customer Rating:
Summary: Spectacular story ruined by choice of voice
Comment: With many excellent books already available about the Holocaust, I can't recommend this so-so version of what should have been a spectacular story. The author has taken on a noble cause, sharing her aunt's Holocaust era childhood experiences in a Jewish ghetto with younger readers. Unfortunately, the memories of Syvia Perlmutter's amazing young life, as one of only twelve children to survive and gain freedom from the ghetto, falls flat in its ultra-simplified style. After discarding other methods of telling Syvia's story, Jennifer Roy chose to write it in the first person. A mistake. While some parts seem realistically genuine, others feel forced. Give me: the original tapes, the content of the original tapes "performed" by another (if the sound quality is not adequate), or the original transcripts over this historical fiction version requiring the reader to sort out facto from fiction. Better: Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, and the movie Life is Beautiful.

Customer Rating:
Summary: Yellow Star - a powerfully poignant story
Comment: Roy, J. (2006). Yellow star. Tarrytown, NY: Marshall Cavendish.

According to Book Wizard on the scholastic.com website, the interest level is grades 6 - 8, the guided reading level is Y, and the Lexile measure is 710L. The grade level equivalent is 6.1.

"Yellow Star" is classified as historical fiction/poetry, and is a gripping 227 pages long. After over 50 years of keeping her memories bottled up, Sylvia Perlmutter let them flow as her niece, Jennifer Roy, recorded them. Sylvia, born Syvia, was a Jewish survivor of the Holocaust, and she recounted with clarity her experiences of living in the Lodz ghetto of Poland during WWII. Jennifer Roy chose to write her aunt's story as a first-person narrative, using free verse to convey vignettes of the life of Syvia and her family.

"Yellow Star" begins in 1939, when Syvia was 4-1/2 years old. Her family lived in Lodz, Poland, and was forced by the Nazis to relocate in the ghetto section, where they were locked behind a barbed-wire fence along with over 250,000 Jewish people. Jennifer Roy introduces the sections with historical facts, ensuring the reader has important background knowledge as they continue through the story. The reader is presented with powerful images of life in the ghetto as seen through the eyes of the young Syvia. "Bright colors don't exist in the ghetto, except for the yellow stars and puddles of red blood that we carefully step around" (p. 21). "Yellow Star" is the story of a family's struggle to survive. Readers are told from the beginning that Syvia and her family were among the approximately 800 Jews left in the ghetto when they were liberated in 1945. Syvia was one of only 12 surviving children. Knowing the outcome does not spoil the suspense. "Yellow Star" entices the reader with thrilling scenarios. What is it like to spend the night in a hole in a graveyard? How will her dad outwit the soldiers? How will Syvia stay hidden next time? Will Nazi soldiers discover Syvia? In the end, how will Syvia feel about the yellow star that she had so desperately wanted to rip off her coat?

I found no negative aspects to this book. "Yellow Star" is well written and appropriate for the intended audience. I read "Yellow Star" cover to cover without putting it down. This is a compelling story full of innocence, anxiety, courage, strength, and resilience. The free verse is a beautiful way of tying together all the strands of Syvia's vivid memories. The juxtaposition of a child's innocence and her matter of fact description of cold, cramped living conditions, starvation, fear, and death, make this a powerfully poignant story. I highly recommend this book to readers 10 years old through adults. I also recommend "Yellow Star" as an excellent book for art teachers of the middle and high school levels. The story is filled with references to color and lack of color. A great companion book for a lesson incorporating the meaning of color, and using art to raise social awareness, would be "My Secret Camera: Life in the Lodz Ghetto." This book contains haunting photographs taken by Jewish artist/photographer, Mendel Grossman. Add "Yellow Star" to your must read list!


Customer Rating:
Summary: Yellow Star
Comment: Yellow Star is excellent. The book is written in first person, from the authors interviews of her aunt who was one of the only children who survived the Lodzer Ghetto. I was deeply moved by her writing, not only as an avid reader, but as a person who lost an extensive family in Lodz during WW2 .

This book is recommended reading fr anyone who wants to now what happened during those horrific times.

Manny Litwak

Customer Rating:
Summary: Moving little book about surviving the holocaust.
Comment: This is a must read for children and adults alike. As an adult I have been enjoying reading the books written for children lately. They tell the truth of what really happened but they are not so graphic as to totally terrify a child.

I found this book very encouraging and moving. Please read this book with your children and grandchildren, talk about it and let us never forget so this will never happen again.

Beautifully written.

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