Dancing on the Bridge of Avignon

Surviving the troubled days of Nazi-occupied Holland, ten-year-old Rosa de Jong plays her beloved violin when she is no longer permitted to attend school and wonders about her parents' secret dream about dancing in Avignon.

Grade 3-7?Holland in 1942 is not a safe place for Jews, yet the de Jong family does their best to live a normal life. "Normal" is a relative term, though, as 10-year-old Rosa is well aware. She loses classmates, teachers, and neighbors to concentration camps. She is teased and scorned by Nazi sympathizers. She helps make room for refugees, and suffers fear and uncertainty. Yet Rosa is still a "normal" child, surrounded by loving family and friends; she laughs, plays, pouts, gets into mischief, and experiences wonder, happiness, and hope. Her violin carries her through the story, and at book's end it saves her from certain death. This abrupt conclusion?which, despite an epilogue, leaves many questions unanswered?is Dancing on the Bridge of Avignon's only flaw. With most tales of Jews in World War II focused on hiding or concentration camps, its approach is unique. Vos's short, episodic chapters are well crafted; her writing is poignant in its understatement. Characterization is excellent?the best in Vos's books so far. This is a welcome addition to World War II novels and also gives a meaningful view of a family coping under immense stress.?Ann W. Moore, Guilderland Public Library, NY
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Continuing to explore the experiences of Dutch Jewish children during WWII, Dutch author Vos (Anna Is Still Here; Hide and Seek) breaks new ground with this profoundly affecting and sorrowful novel. As the Nazis impose restrictions and as the deportations begin, Rosa, Vos's heroine, spends hours curled in a chair, lost in daydreams; she and her younger sister memorize the dates of all the Nazi proclamations and quiz each other about them-the morbid and the everyday have become interchangeable. As the historical nightmare intensifies, the parents' efforts to provide stability in their home become harder and harder. When Rosa's uncle, telling them a wildly improbable story, promises the whole family safe passage to the south of France, the girls begin learning French words and songs, and even as their desperate father recognizes that the uncle's plan is almost certainly a fantasy, he has nothing to offer in its place. In a stark, shattering conclusion, the family is arrested and sent toward certain death while Rosa is spared-because of her resemblance to a German officer's daughter. Although this novel's dark lyricism may inhibit its accessibility within the target audience, readers with some understanding of the Holocaust-adults as well as the young-will find Vos's message haunting and inescapable. Ages 8-12.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Gr. 5^-8. Like Hide and Seek (1991), this story is based on Vos' own wartime experiences and those of other Jews in the Netherlands during the dark days of the Nazi occupation. And like the first book, this story, translated from the Dutch, is told in a series of present-tense vignettes from the point of view of a child. Rosa, 10, dreams of the days before the war when she could still go to school, walk in the park, ride public transportation, take violin lessons, own a bike. Now she shakes when the doorbell rings: are the Nazis coming to take her and her family away? This isn't as taut as Hide and Seek; much of it reads like a docu-novel, with scenes and dialogue contrived to give us the facts. What's riveting is the ending. Rosa's family seems to be offered a miraculous chance to escape, only to be arrested and sent to the camps. Vos' epilogue explains that there were such rumors of deliverance at the time, all of them false. Hazel Rochman