Along the Tracks

AGE: 12-16

The frightfulness of war is vividly dramatized in this novel about a Polish boy in World War II. Yankele`s family escapes from Lodz before the ghetto is closed off and flees east towards Asia. When their train is bombed, Yankele is separated from his mother, and begins years of wandering in search of his family. Almost unaware of the dangers, he gets through the snowy steppes of central Asia to reach Kazakhastan, Bokhara, Tashkent and Uzbekistan. Yasha, as he is now known, teams up with Bokharan street children, befriends prostitutes and helps a young Uzbek girl who has been raped. By the time he is reunited with his family, he is no longer the same boy. Beyond Yankele`s own story of survival, Tamar Bergman has drawn the picture of an entire continent on the move.

Along the Tracks was awarded the prestigious Ze`ev Prize.
In English translation, it was selected as a Notable Children`s Trade Book by the U.S. Children`s Book Council. It also made the 1991 Bulletin Blue Ribbon list.