I Will Come Back for You: A Family in Hiding During World War II

This book dealt with some hard themes. The father has to run away and hide, and when the soldiers come to collect him and he is gone, they threaten to take the mom instead. They are able to get the mom to escape, and the children have to live without her for a period of time. Eventually, they

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escape too, and are reunited.

One thing I liked about the book was when they found out that the dad died (sad), the entire page was black with no illustrations. It helped set the serious tone and also the plain blackness helped to focus on the words and the reinforce a feeling of despair and change, as the page was different from the rest of the entire book, which was colorful and generally hopeful in tone.

I didn't like that there was not a single person in the book who was not white.

I also felt that the danger was at most points pretty trivialized, and the reasons for the war and what was going on was not really explained in detail at all.

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A grandmother’s (nonna) charm bracelet tells the story of life in Italy before World War II and subsequent events that led to Nonna’s immigration to America. A donkey, a piano, a bicycle, and piglets all play a part. Gouache-painted illustrations and vintage photographs on the endpapers add

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visual context.

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Excellent story, based on the author's own family history, about a Jewish family in Italy that has to go into hiding during World War II.

A story about a grandma's experience as a little girl in Italy during WWII. She is Jewish and she tells of the steps that were taken to protect her family from the Nazis.

This is the story of a little girl who is being protected from the Nazis during World War II.

This book is about a Jewish family living in Italy who is torn apart in WWII. In the book, the little girl’s Nonna tells the story of her charm bracelet. The main purpose of this story is to provide information about WWII and to also show hope. One thing that I really liked about this story was

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the end papers. The author based the story on her mother’s life, so she provided real pictures of her mother’s family on the front and back end papers. A second thing that I really liked about this book was that the little girl’s Nonna connected each event in her life to a charm on her bracelet. For example, he pig charm symbolized when she traveled inside a basket of pigs to be taken back to her mother. A third thing that I really loved about this book was the subject. I think that the Holocaust is a very important event about which children need to learn. I think that this story explained the event through the eyes of one family, which is less daunting than a factual book, and in a way that was not too graphic or gruesome but also portrayed true events. For example, in the story, Nona’s father says he will come back for them after the war, but he his killed and never returns. The reader knows that he died, but they do not know any of the details.

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In my opinion, this is a great book for children. The concepts discussed in the book are hard for children to grasp because they are about a father being sent away and killed during war. The story is told from the grandmothers point a view which I found interesting. Many grandmothers wear a charm

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bracelet, but does each charm have a story behind it like this one? This was an interesting way to talk hiding in WWII, through the charms on the bracelet.

The language in the book was very simple and easy to understand. Since some of the story took place in the past and some of the story took place in the present, the ideas were not too hard to grasp because the concepts were not discussed in too much depth. The idea of going into hiding may make the students reading the book question what is happening, but there was not too much thrown at the student at one time. The ideas were broken up by flashbacks and present day.

I feel as though this book would make children want to go home and question their parents about their past. The girl in the book had no idea her grandmother and mother went through such hardships in the past. The old time photographs on the back and front cover are very appealing because they are real life photos from the family discussed in the book. This may be another attention grabber for students.

The illustrations do a great job at portraying the characters feelings. When a character is upset or frightened, their facial expressions accompany the text. Again, the old time photos on the front and back inside cover also does the same. Seeing the real life picture and reading the story, the students will be able to make a connection.

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World War II is a time period that has always interested and reading a fictionalized account of the author’s family’s experiences in Italy during this time was very compelling.
Curricular connections can be made with social studies in fourth and fifth grade. Reading this story would be a gentle

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introduction to the concept of detainment camps and the sadness and death that unfolded. Following the reading, students would learn what life was like for children in Europe during World War II.

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I thought this was a very moving book that told of what it was like to grow up Jewish in Italy during World War II in a way that young children could understand and empathize. I loved that the glossary was at the beginning of the book. This is a great way to introduce vocabulary before reading, I

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wish more books would do this.

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Providing the history of her family, a young girl hears from her beloved grandmother (Nonna) in Italian, how frightening it was to live in Italy during the time of Nazi occupation. The little girls grandmother tells of how her father was told to flee to the mountains for safety.

The family was never

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the same. Her grandmother and family missed her father terribly. The family would periodically travel to the mountains to see her father who had to sleep at a designated place with all other Jewish men. When word reached him that all detainees were going to be placed in a concentration camp, her father decided to flee and hide, telling the family to return to Rome and stay until he came for them. Soon thereafter, their mother fled as well telling the children she would come back for them.

Days turned to months that turned to years. The family learned that their beloved husband/father joined the resistance group fighting against the Germans. He was caught and killed. Eventually, the family went to America.

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