Gruenbaum, Michael, and Todd Hasak-Lowy. Somewhere There Is Still a Sun.

Gruenbaum, Michael, and Todd Hasak-Lowy.  Somewhere There Is Still a Sun.  Aladdin see Simon Schuster 2015  384p.  $17.99  ISBN 978-1-4424-8486-3    ms/hs  Memoir  VG-BN 

This well-written memoir details the life and experiences of Michael (Misha) Gruenbaum, who was born in Prague and lived in the Jewish community there until his transfer to a concentration camp in Terezin, Czechoslovakia, with his mother and sister.  Written in the first person, Michael’s memoir tells the story of the most horrific years of his life, from 1939-1945, from the perspective of the boy that he was at that time.

The events are written as Misha the boy understood them, so young readers will feel empathy for him and relate to his family’s trials and suffering. Gruenbaum tells in great detail of the fear that he felt every day, waiting to be transported, and then being sent with his mother and sister to live in the concentration camp in Terezin until the end of the war when the Red Cross arrived, and the reader feels as though s/he is coming along on the journey.  Misha describes the conflict and surreal emotions that he experienced for four years as he roomed with forty other boys who became his brothers, playing soccer one day, hiding another day, and always hungry.

The book is written with sensitivity, but it accurately depicts the brutal events and raw emotions felt by many Jews during the Holocaust. It will resonate well with students seeking first-person information on the Holocaust. The memoir ends with an epilogue that provides an adult’s perspective on Misha’s adolescent misconceptions and misunderstandings of the events that occurred. It also describes his move to the United States and his reasons for writing the book, which is highly recommended.

Summary: This is a well-written memoir detailing the life and experiences of Michael Gruenbaum, born into Prague’s Jewish community and later transferred to a labor camp in Terezin, Czechoslovakia, during the Holocaust, 1939-1945.

Holocaust, World War II                               --Virginia McGarvey

Manzano, Sonia. Becoming Maria.

Manzano, Sonia.  Becoming Maria.    Scholastic Press  2015  262p.  $17.99  ISBN 978-0-545-62184-7  ms/hs  Memoir  VG   

This memoir by the actor who played Maria on Sesame Street for forty years begins with her young childhood in the Bronx and continues until she reaches the age of 20 and is establishing herself professionally.  In it she recounts the brutality and poverty of her childhood.  Poignant, moving, and detailed, Manzano wraps the reader in the world she grew up in, the world of Nuyoricenos and sometimes scary family dynamics.  I wanted to love this book because I love the author and the role she created on Sesame Street.  However, I found the writing often tedious and bogged down in too much detail, the characters in her family sometimes confusing, and the action rather slow.  In addition, the memoir does not really explain how she did “become Maria,” as it ends with her audition for the role.  Others have suggested that perhaps another memoir is in the works, one that will carry Sonia from the age of 20 into her long career at Sesame Street and her fully reaching adulthood.  This would be most welcome for those who want to know more and who were beguiled by the title of this book.

The book seems to be written for high-school students and older readers, as it uses four-letter words and does not try to water down the brutality that was sometimes evident in Manzano’s family.  While it has the potential to engage readers who want to read the true story of a determined and talented young woman who started out life in difficult circumstances, one is afraid that this slow-moving narrative will not sustain interest.  

Summary: This memoir by the actor who played Maria on Sesame Street for forty years begins with her young childhood in the Bronx and continues until she reaches the age of 20 and is establishing herself professionally.  In it she recounts the brutality and poverty of her childhood.  

Sonia Manzano-Memoir                                  --Carol Kennedy

Paulsen, Gary. This Side of Wild.

Paulsen, Gary.  This Side of Wild.  Simon & Schuster  2015  120p  ISBN 978-1-4814-5794-1  ms/hs  Nonfiction  VG        

This is a memoir, a series of vignettes about Gary Paulsen’s relationships with animals.  The writing is terrific (as always), but the narrative is a bit choppy; for example, in Chapter 1, Gary seems to move from adventures in Wyoming to events that happened in Alaska in a very few pages, in a sort-of stream-of-consciousness manner, which this adult reader found a bit confusing.  It is not nearly as well-organized as My Life in Dog Years, but it will be enjoyable to people who love animal stories and fans of Gary Paulsen.  I believe it is geared more for older readers, because the concepts are more mature, with Gary ruminating on war, philosophical questions, and the nature of the relationship between man and beast.  The individual tales of animals are very interesting and will keep the reader’s attention, but there is an abruptness in the transitions between them that can be a bit confusing.  The last segment, on ravens, was different from the others, in that the ravens’ relationship with humans is adversarial rather than cooperative.  It didn’t fit with the theme of man’s kinship with other creatures, and yet it did demonstrate the intelligence of these birds.  Since this is an ARC, perhaps Paulsen is thinking of reworking the narrative to make it flow more easily and make his points clearer to younger readers.
                       

Summary: This is a memoir, a series of vignettes about Gary Paulsen’s relationships with animals he has known, like Corky the poodle, Gretchen the mutt, and Josh, the dog we have already met in other books.     

Wild animals, Memoir                                        --Carol Kennedy

Molnar, Haya Leah Under A Red Sky

Molnar, Haya Leah Under A Red Sky
Farrar Strauss 2010 302p 17.99
978-0-374-31840-6 ms/hs VG
Haya Leah Molnar began life as Eva Zimmerman, and knew nothing of her Jewish heritage until her family petitioned to relocate to Israel. A engaging and moving memoir of a childhood in Communist Romania. A moving and engaging memoir, told in the first person, from a child’s point of view. Haya Leah Molnar grew up as Eva Zimmerman, the child of a famous dancer and a filmmaker. While her extended family endured hardships under the Communist regime in Romania, the stories of her eccentric relatives and family friends paint a loving and fascinating picture of life behind the Iron Curtain, in 1950’s Romania. While her father believed in science as the one truth, and the family rarely observed any religious traditions, Eva was shocked to find out that they were Jewish, when her father applied to emigrate to Israel. After that application, her family was forced into more hardships when it was known that they were indeed Jewish.

The ending seemed far too abrupt, including pictures of Molnar’s life in Israel, and eventual emigration to the US, but no narrative past the boat entering the Tel Aviv harbor. In that respect the memoir seems incomplete and will leave readers wondering of her life in Israel and the family’s decision to come to the US. Perhaps there will be a sequel. Recommmended for memoir and historical collections. This cultural memoir gives insight into a child’s life behind the Iron Curtain in a pivotal time in world history. Easily readable by middle school and still relevant for high school collections. Naismith, Pat

Dumbfounded by Matt Rothschild

Rothschild, Matt. Dumbfounded.
Crown see Random, 2008, 301p, $23.95, 978-0-307-40542-5

In Matt Rothschild’s memoir, Dumbfounded, we are confronted with a challenge to decipher. Is this book autobiographical? Is it purely fiction? Does it lie somewhere in between? Truthfully, it is so entertaining that we jump from page to page, hardly believing the stories that Matt tells us about the poor little rich boy, raised by wealthy Jewish grandparents. Yet, we come aboard and are drawn into each chapter as Matt describes the comedic horrors of growing up in New York’s East Side. It’s an oxymoron! Indeed, Matt is loved. He survives. He grows up with the right values. His grandparents are real people, demonstrating the tolerance and friendship necessary to create longevity in their marriage. Matt sees this and it becomes part of him. On the other hand, Matt describes his family as dysfunctional. Yes, his own mother has rejected him. And, yes, he questions his bizarre upbringing in each and every chapter of the memoir. We laugh, we feel and we believe. Rothschild’s characters are so very real. First, there is his best friend Elaine, again an oxymoron, as Elaine hopped into her limousine with a bag of toys from FAO Schwarz, leaving Matt at the door to take the rap for shoplifting. There is Mike, the captain of the lacrosse team who poured super glue into the teacher’s shoes, leaving Matt to take the blame and to be expelled. Second, there is a neglectful mother who only reached out to Matt for her own selfish reasons. She was bereft of personality as to intentionally exclude Matt from his grandmother’s funeral, despite that fact that his grandmother was his life. Finally, there is Matt’s grandmother, an abrasive, sarcastic, opinionated fighter of everything normal in life. From her we learn that it takes all kinds to raise a child to become a happy, productive adult. At times, the humor is subtle; other times, it is blatant.
This book is for the more sophisticated reader making it a good selection for a high school library or a public library. MS

The Invisible Wall.

Bernstein, Harry. The Invisible Wall.
Random House, 2007. 297p $22.95 978-0-345-49580-8

Jews lived on one side of the street, Christians on the other. Despite this invisible wall, a love blossomed between Jewish Lily and Christian Arthur than eventually united the communities. Harry Bernstein tells his family’s incredible story.
Can a 93-year-old man still remember dinner conversations prior to World War I? Little matter, what first-time author Bernstein gives the reader is a poignant and beautiful memoir of a racial; religious, and cultural divide bridged by the power of love.

Growing up in a small Lancashire mill town at the turn of the century, Harry Bernstein endured the violence of anti-Semitism at school and the lethal cocktail of alcoholism and poverty at home. On a street that divided the Jewish and Christian communities, only a few yards came between the communities, but they were worlds apart. Then Harry became the go-between for his older sister, Lily, and Arthur, her Christian lover.

At times the story seems almost too well-remembered, and seems more historical fiction than an actual memoir. Whatever its “real” status, this is a lyrical testament to a bygone time. This story of poverty and resilience, redeemed by the ultimate power of love will appeal to fans of Angela’s Ashes.
Recommended for high school and adult biography collections, multicultural collections, and those containing World War I memoirs. PN