Waiting for Anya

by Michael Morpurgo, Nicholas Rowe (Read by)

Overview

Jo places his life in danger when he helps protect a growing number of Jewish children who have sought refuge at a reclusive widow's farm.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780008418281
Publisher:	HarperCollins UK
Publication date:	06/30/2020
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 1.50(h) x 5.00(d)
Age Range:	10 - 13 Years

About the Author

Michael Morpurgo is one of Britain s best-loved children s book writers. He has written more than one hundred books and has won the Smarties Book Prize, the Whitbread Award, and the Blue Peter Book Award for Private Peaceful. Michael was writer-in-residence at the Savoy Hotel from January to April 2007, and previously he was Great Britain s Children s Laureate from 2003 to 2005, a role that took him across the country to inspire a love of reading in children.

Editorial Reviews

Like the acclaimed Number the Stars , this well-plotted novel features a young Gentile hero battling the Germans in their war against the Jews. As it opens, Jo is guarding the sheep when his dog alerts him to a bear; Jo warns the villagers in his small French town and they kill the hapless beast. The theme here prefigures the more tragic hunt for human prey, while the bear chase itself brings Jo into contact with Benjamin, the reclusive Widow Horcada's Jewish son-in-law, who is hiding in her mountain home. Separated from Anya, his daughter, Benjamin hides other Jewish children and leads them to safety in nearby Spain. Jo is soon enlisted, bringing supplies to the widow's house. Then the Germans encamp in Jo's village, observing everyone and sealing the Spanish border. Jo's concern for the Jews is measured against his reluctant awareness that the German occupiers are not uniformly evil--in fact, the villagers' relations with the Germans form the most distinctive element of the story. Although some key elements are historically improbable (chiefly, a German officer's partial rejection of Nazi principles), the adventure of the Jews' escape into Spain is both gripping and temperate. Ages 10-14. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Gr 5-9Accidentally discovering that Jewish children are hiding in the countryside, Michael, and then his entire French village, help them escape to Spain. A gripping, triumphant tale of courage in its many forms. (Apr. 1991)

School Library Journal

Praise for Waiting for Anya

"In its understated style and gentle telling of a harsh lesson, the story is reminiscent of Lois Lowry's Number the Stars." —School Library Journal

"Action-packed . . . Morpurgo’s characters rise above the two-dimensional, giving young people much to ponder in the areas of good versus evil and hero versus villain." —The Horn Book
  
"Gripping." —Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher