What if one day your father had to go
far away to fight in a dangerous war? You and your
mother had to hide in bomb shelters at night, and
couldn’t find good food to eat. On top of that, your
friends at school started to call you mean names and
tried to beat you up. Imagine that you had to start
wearing a badge saying that you were different. The
badge meant you couldn’t go to the swimming pool or the
movies or even the park. Now imagine that the police
came to your home to try to take you and your family
away. What could you do to protect yourself?
Maybe you’d have to run away, to leave
everything and everyone you knew behind and go hide in a
place full of strangers, a place you’d never even seen
before. You might have to change your name, learn to eat
different foods and to practice a new religion, just to
stay safe and alive. After years of living this secret,
pretend life, do you think it would be easy to go back
to your real one? How would you remember who you really
were?
Suppose you were lucky enough to get
back home, but it didn’t feel like home anymore? What if
most of the people you loved were gone? And you were
different, changed by all the frightening things that
had happened to you? How would you ever become yourself
again?
Paris, France is one of the most
beautiful places in the world. But Odette Meyers grew up
there at an ugly time, during World War II. All of these
things happened to her.
A middle-grade historical novel based on
the life of Odette Meyers. Coming soon from Bloomsbury.
