Elisabeth - Hardcover

Nivola, Claire A.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0374320853 ISBN 13: 9780374320850

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR), 1996

Synopsis

Forced to leave behind her beloved doll when her family leaves Germany during the Second World War, a young girl is delighted and amazed to find her doll years later in an American antique shop, in a story based on real-life events.

About this title

About the Author:

Claire A. Nivola, painter, sculptor, and illustrator, lives in Newton Highlands, Massachusetts.

From School Library Journal:

Kindergarten-Grade 3. A little girl in Germany shares every moment of her life with her beloved doll, Elisabeth, until the soldiers come and her teacher calls her "Jew." She flees with her parents to Italy, France, and, finally, America with all the family's possessions left behind, including Elisabeth. Years pass and the little girl, now a mother, has a daughter who wants a special doll. Searching through every antique store, the woman finds the very one she left behind, identifiable because of teeth marks left in the doll's arm by her mischievous dog. Still more years pass and now her granddaughter plays with it. Full-color paintings bordered by white space present a tableaux of images: a stern faced doll, a soldier with a rifle on a sunny tree-lined street, the grown-up Ruth examining the doll in the shop. This is a moving, but adult-focused remembrance of the author's mother, which raises the question of audience. The delicate art, amount of white space, and very brief text will appeal to preschoolers through first graders, but with no background built into the story, they're unlikely to understand why Ruth and her family must flee or comprehend the concept of anti-Semitism. Older children will find the story lacking in substance.?Susan Pine, New York Public Library
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0374320853
• ISBN 13: 9780374320850
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: Nivola Claire A.