About book Odette Secrets Maryann MacDonald 9781599907505 (2000)
3.5 Bittersweet tale of a young Jewish girl who pretends to be Christian when she and her mom are banished from Paris during the German occupation of France during WWII. Told In the first person, the story is told in verse, poetry being one of the things that brought Odette comfort while they were in hiding. She tells the story from the perspective of an eight year old who lived through this exile over a period of two years. One of her secrets is being a Jew and having to pretend she isn't. She becomes devoted in a way to the Christianity she pretends to know and learn and that's a struggle for her when they return home. Luckily she didn't experience the horrors of a concentration camp or we would most likely not be reading this. In France 11,400 children were deported to schools, convents & farms during the occupation and 84% of them survived. More than in any other European country. The book is both moving and informative. The author stumbled upon her story while passing a school in France with a monument dedicated to all the French children who were exiled during the Nazi occupation. Her curiosity led her to Odette Meyers. This would be a good gentle introduction to WWII Nazi history for school age kids. I'm marinating on reading it to my 1st & 3rd grader. Katelyn has been reading this book for a week, and she talks about it every night and asks so many questions, so I decided to read it. It's a quick one day read, and I couldn't put it down. It's based on a true story of a Jewish girl in Paris who had to leave with 3 other young girls and live with a family in the country to escape the Nazis. Odette is only 8 years old when she has to leave her mother, and I just kept thinking of Katelyn being the same age and I just can't imagine her going through anything like this. I was glad to see (for Katelyn's sake) that her mother and father survive, or Katelyn would have been crying for days and worried about us all the time. A great read - definitely worth a couple hours of your time!
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This was a good, true account of a Jewish girl who survived the German occupation of Paris.
—marya
