 Hedi and her friend Marika spend their days playing in the park with Hedi’s dog Bodri. Hedi is Jewish and Marika is Christian, but that doesn’t stop them from being friends. All is well until Adolf Hitler ’s frightening voice is heard on the radio saying that he hates Jews. His soldiers come and round up Hedi’s family and all the other Jews and put them onto a train for the camps. Bodri is left behind. Hedi dreams of Bodri for the many months that she and her sister are separated from Bodri and their parents. They are cold and hungry in the camp. Their heads are shaved and they have to wear dirty uniforms and hard shoes. The sisters survive and they are reunited with Bodri. Carefully chosen language tells this difficult story. The author, who was born in 1924, is a Holocaust survivor who experienced the horrors of Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen, and several work camps. The illustrations, which were created with watercolor, ink, and digital media, evoke the time and place perfectly. mjw |
| Title: The Story Of Bodri Author: Hedi Fried Illustrator: Stina Wirsen Publisher: Eerdmans Books for Young Readers. Grand Rapids, Michigan Copyright: 2021 Original Language: Swedish Translator: Linda Schenck Original Title: Historien om Bodri Original Publisher: Natur & Kultur. Stockholm, Sweden Original Copyright: 2019 ISBN: 978-0-8028-5565-7 Hardcover pages: 32 Age range: 6-10 Genre: Picture Book. Historical Fiction Author’s ethnicity: Swedish-Hungarian Author’s residence: Stockholm, Sweden Illustrator’s ethnicity: Swedish Illustrator’s residence: Stockholm, Sweden Subjects: Concentration camps, Dogs, Germany, Adolf Hitler, Holocaust, Jews |
The Story Of Bodri
Leave a reply
War spreads like a disease. It hears nothing, sees nothing, and feels nothing. It feeds on hate and spite. It saddens, crushes, and silences. It destroys everything in its path. This eye-opening book with sparse text reveals the many sides of war. The watercolor illustrations in black, grays, and browns are stunning and surreal. War is the perfect book for starting important discussions between children and their parents and teachers. mjw
Twelve-year-old Sora and her family live in Communist North Korea in 1950. War is coming and they need to escape. The family plans to walk the 300 miles from their village to the South Korean city of Busan. There is a bombing and Sora and her eight-year-old brother Youngsoo are left to get there on their own. It’s winter, and they have to face enemy soldiers, starvation, frostbite, deprivation, and other hardships as they struggle to complete their journey. This highly engrossing story is loosely based on the author’s mother’s experiences. An author’s note, photographs of the author’s family, a glossary of Korean words, a timeline of the Korean War, and a map of Sora’s journey are included.
