The doll with the yellow star By McDonald, Yona Zeldis

Title: The doll with the yellow star

Author: McDonald, Yona Zeldis

Illustration: Kimberly Bulcken Root

Publisher: Henry Holt and Company.

Comments

CIP Info When France falls to Germany at the start of World War II, eight year old Claudine must leaver her beloved parents and friends to stay with relatives in America, accompanied by her doll, Violette.

Not the best World War II book that I have ever read, but it does have a different perspective than most books. The book actually starts shortly after the Germans invade France. Claudine is forced to wear the Yellow Star that brands her a Jew, but she fights back by putting her doll’s star on this inside of Violette’s coat. Soon after she starts wearing the star her parents send her to American to live with her relatives. We get to see more of the transition here. The book spends more time on the trip over the ocean where Claudine is separated from her doll when the ship catches fire as they are getting ready to dock. This book allowed me to see how hard it was for the children like this and of the Kindertansport to adapt to a new culture and life while not knowing what happened to their families. After some time Claudine’s father shows up in America. He tells her that her mother has died, but that doesn’t sink in right away. At the end of the school year, she and her father return to France. Once they return to Paris, they both realize that France is not the same place they once loved. Their house has been trashed by looters and Nazi troops. It is when Claudine sees the state of her house that she finally accepts the fact that her mother isn’t coming back. They sell what little they have and return to America. The time spent on their adjustments during the post-war era is the real gem. This is a period that many others don’t cover at all. This was a time of struggling and acceptance, and moving on with life. The ending is a bit forced, but cute none the less. Claudine and her father start shopping act auctions to furnish their house and make it more “homey.” It is at the final auction that the “happy ending” is a bit of a stretch. Her father buys a trunk and after they haul the trunk in they open it to find some blankets and such. Near the bottom Claudine finds the doll she lost so many years before. All in all, it is a book to show lesser known portions of these years.