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| Uri Orlev |
Run, Boy, Run |
Jerusalem, Keter, 2001. 200 pp.
AGE 10 UP
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This extraordinary, life-affirming book tells the story of Srulik Freedman. Srulik, a Polish Jewish boy, is five years old when World War II breaks out. After losing his family, he escapes the Warsaw ghetto, surviving the Holocaust in the woods and rural villages of Poland.
How does a young boy who is entirely alone get through the war? How does he keep up his will to live, in spite of the hardships he faces? An encounter helps answer this question: one night, as he is fleeing German soldiers, Srulik comes face to face with his father. During the few moments they share, his father gives him some words of advice: "You must stay alive. You must find someone who will teach you how to behave among the gentiles, how to cross yourself and pray." These words guide Srulik through the war. Over the next months, Srulik bands together with other Jewish boys in the woods. When he loses these friends, he wanders from farm to farm, or village, searching for work in exchange for food and shelter. Eventually the war ends and Srulik is brought back to Judaism. The reader is left to appreciate the important things that we take for granted - having a family, a home, food, freedom and, most of all: life.
Illustrations: Michel Kichka.
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