This book about two sisters living at Auschwitz is based on a true family story — authors Pnina Bat Zvi and Margie Wolfe are the sisters’ children.
Toby, the older of the two sisters, carries gold coins in a shoe paste tin. Two years earlier, on the night their parents were arrested, their father gave the girls the coins and told them to stay together, no matter what — that it would be their only chance for survival.
When Rachel, the younger sister, falls ill, the girls are separated for the first time. Using the coins, Toby bribes a guard to let her into the barrack where Rachel is being held and rescues her. As punishment, Toby receives a lashing. The sisters ultimately survive, and when the coins are long gone, they have kept their promise to their parents that they would stay together.
Illustrator Isabelle Cardinal does a fine job of showing the dissonance of the camp through her muted-tone collages. The shifting point of view is cumbersome, but the story, which emphasizes survival through sisterhood, is heartwarming.
Barbara Krasner is the author of many books across genres, including fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, and children’s literature. Her recent titles include 37 Days at Sea: Aboard the M.S. St. Louis, 1939, Civilian Casualties in War and Ethel’s Song: Ethel Rosenberg’s Life in Poems. Her book Goldie Takes a Stand! Golda Meir’s First Crusade was a recipient of the Sydney Taylor Honor Award. She holds a Ph.D. in Holocaust and genocide studies from Gratz College, teaches in the Holocaust and genocide studies program at the College of New Jersey, and serves as director of the Mercer County Holocaust, Genocide, and Human Rights Education Center. She also holds an MFA in writing for children and young adults from the Vermont College of Fine Arts.
