The Night of The Burning by Linda Press Wulf

Paperback: 224 pages
Publisher: Bloomsbury (May 2008)
Age range: Young Adult
Source: Library
ISBN-10: 0747591342
ISBN-13: 978-0747591344
Devorah and her younger sister Nechama are living in a little village in Poland, 1921in a Jewish shtetl. The village burns down one night during the horrible Pogroms, and the parents of the girls die of typhoid. The girls are send to an orphanage in Warsaw, where a Jewish philantropist, Isaac Orbech is collecting Jewish children who have lost their parents because of the pogroms and poverty, to give them the chance for a better life in South Africa. The girls are picked for this, and soon they are on a ship to a whole new life. Arrived in Cape Town, the girls have to get accustomed to everything. Soon Nechama is adopted by whealthy parents who spoil her and change her name, and Devorah is again alone. But then she gets adopted too, and she has to get used to her new parents. Based on a true story, it's a powerful and amazing first-person view of the trauma experienced by a child, and her journey from despair to hope. I was really amazed by this novel, wich I found at my local library. At the end I was stunned to read that the novel was based on real facts. The character and story are page turning, it is real, and I think an important lesson can be learned from this book. A book I really recommend to everyone from every age. Younger readers will absolutely learn from its historical value.