 |
The Butterfly
by Patricia Polacco
Difficulty: Average
Could you even imagine what it would be like to hide a Jewish person in your home that is surrounded by Nazis? The Butterfly, by Patricia Polacco is a phenomenal book. It is an historical fiction, picture book. This was a true story, based on Patricia Polacco’s aunt! This book is about a girl named Monique. The Nazis with their tall boots have come to Monique’s town. Then, one night Monique sees “a little ghost girl.” Soon Monique finds out that she wasn’t a ghost after all. She was a little Jewish girl named Sevrine who was hiding in their basement from the Nazis. Secretly they became friends. Will Sevrine get caught?
In this story I liked that some people were brave enough to help the Jewish citizens. I thought it was a terrible thing the Nazis did. There is a very important message in this story. No matter what your culture is, we are all different and people should never treat someone else badly just because of their culture. The Jewish and French cultures are described in this book. I learned new words in French, such as "ma cherie" and "vite." I also learned about the Jewish holidays such as, Passover, Shabbat and Hanukah. It was a very sad story but I enjoyed parts because the meaning of friendship and kindness was expressed a lot in this book. However, I didn’t like what happened because what the Nazis did to the Jewish people was terrible and can’t be forgotten. All children should know what happened because all children should know the lesson in this story, and even though it was sad, everyone should know what the Nazis/ Hitler did so that no one will ever do it again. My favorite character, Monsieur Mark, was a French man. He worked at a candy shop. Monsieur Mark is my favorite character because he was taking the risk to give two Jewish girls free candy in front of the Nazis. I think the main character, Monique, was brave. I think this because one day on the train station full of Nazis, she lost her mother and got pushed into a train all alone. She pulled herself together and thought where her mother would most likely be. So she went all the way there and reunited herself with her mother. This story the author wrote came from her Aunt Monique. Her Aunt Monique always shared this story with her family. Patricia felt like this story needed to be shared with the world. This story came from events from the French Resistance, when Marcel helped the Jews escape from the horrid Nazi.Patricia Polacco is from Lansing, Michigan and born in 1944. After her birth she lived in Williamston, Michigan and then moved to her grandparents farm in Union City, Michigan. She wrote many other books like Chicken Sunday, Some Birthday and much more.If you loved my review you should definately read this book! By Disha
Note: This book is available in our Library.
