(3) YA Translated by Erik J. Macki. When Johanna discovers that membership in the Nazi party allowed her beloved grandfather to "acquire" her family's successful business from its original Jewish owners, she grapples with her own conflicted sense of responsibility and guilt. This beautifully written story challenges readers with a contemporary look at the continuing repercussions of the Nazi era for Germany.

Reviewer: Laura A. Woollett

(1) YA Translated by Brian Murdoch. Alternating sections follow seven-year-old Malka and her doctor mother, Hannah, who become separated while fleeing the Nazis in WWII Poland. Hannah reaches sanctuary across the Hungarian border, but Malka ends up alone in the Jewish ghetto. Pressler's calm, unadorned prose makes Malka's ordeal rivetingly immediate; the images she evokes are unforgettable.

Reviewer: Martha V. Parravano | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2003

(4) YA Translated by Brian Murdoch. In a reimagining of "The Merchant of Venice," Pressler strives to explain why the moneylender Shylock insists upon a pound of Antonio's flesh and why Jessica betrays her father. The slow-moving but ambitious story bogs down in detail and with characters whose motivations remain murky. However, the setting--the Jewish ghetto in sixteenth-century Venice--is vividly described.

Reviewer: Carolyn Shute

(2) YA Translated by Anthea Bell. Pressler's sincere and levelheaded text relies closely on Anne's own words as it examines her too-short life. The Anne whom Pressler shows us, drawing on "accounts by people who knew her" and her own extensive study of the diaries, is a complex person with faults and strengths like anyone else. With balance and poignancy, this book succeeds in conveying both the individuality of the most famous Holocaust victim and the enormity of the tragedy that consumed her. Bib., ind.

Reviewer: Christine M. Heppermann | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2000

(1) 4-6 Translated by Elizabeth D. Crawford. WWII has been over for seven years, but for twelve-year-old Halinka, resident of a children's home in Germany for neglected or abused girls, it's still all about survival. Unflinchingly direct and immensely involving, the first-person account is sprinkled with clues to Halinka's substantial humanity, and by the end of the book, we know that Halinka's emotional scars will fade as surely as will her physical ones.

Reviewer: Martha V. Parravano | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 1999