Fic­tion

Thin Ice

Frie­da Korobkin
  • Review
By – September 22, 2017

Two Jew­ish fam­i­lies in 1930s Ger­many face the unimag­in­able — dan­ger, per­se­cu­tion, loss, and the con­se­quences of dif­fi­cult deci­sions made at vul­ner­a­ble times. How is it pos­si­ble to sur­vive ter­ri­ble eras in his­to­ry and still remain proud of who you are? 

Writ­ten in a dra­mat­ic but reflec­tive tone, this sto­ry imme­di­ate­ly draws the read­er in and makes one care about the char­ac­ters. The char­ac­ters come have diver­gent back­grounds but they find human con­nec­tions and are sur­pris­ing­ly intro­spec­tive. Two of the char­ac­ters share a love of ice skat­ing that remains con­sis­tent through­out the book. 

The after­math of World War II sets the stage for an iden­ti­ty cri­sis that pulls at the heart­strings and pro­vides grist for deep thought for mature read­ers of ages six­teen and up. 

Deb­bie Fed­er is cur­rent­ly the Direc­tor of the LRC at Ida Crown Jew­ish Acad­e­my in Chica­go. She has her Mas­ters in Library and Infor­ma­tion Sci­ence from Domini­can Uni­ver­si­ty. She has spent more than ten years intro­duc­ing chil­dren and young adults to lit­er­a­ture and infor­ma­tion lit­er­a­cy at schools and pub­lic libraries. She is the author of Jel­ly Bean’s Art Muse­um Adven­ture and is hon­ored to have been a mem­ber of the Syd­ney Tay­lor Book Award Committee.

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