In the beginning of the book, we meet the two main characters from both time periods. The reader is introduced to Sarah’s family; the French police take Sarah with her parents as they go to various houses arresting Jews. Sarah is a little girl and doesn’t understand what is happening, she believes that they will come back. Her little brother doesn’t want to go, so Sarah locks him in a cupboard believing she will we back to save him. In 2002, we meet a modern-day Parisian family who is moving into their grandmother’s house. The family consists of Bertrand, Julia, and Zoe. Julia is the main protagonist from that era; she is investigating the roundup of the Jews in Paris.
The protagonists both live in Paris, just in different time periods. Sarah’s family is from Paris in 1942, during the Holocaust. Julia’s family lives in Paris in 2002, Julia is originally from America. I infer that the two houses that both protagonists live in are the same.
There are a lot of major and minor problems in the book so far. One of the main problems for Sarah’s family is that they are being taken away from their homes, and are probably not coming home. Another problem is that Sarah’s little brother is trapped inside the cupboard, and he probably won’t ever come out. In Julia’s family, there are not any major problems, but there are some minor ones. Julia is starting to get irritated because her husband is making snide comments about Julia being American.
I like your blog post. It is very informative.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Eesha.You did a solid job of summarizing the text and profiling the parallel stories. You allude to some of the internal conflicts for the characters. I wonder if you notice any foreshadowing, especially for Julia. As you read further, you may discover some things that the author has intentionally established to lead you through the conflicts.
ReplyDelete4.5/5 points. I like the way you take risks with punctuation. You successfully used a semi-colon in the last paragraph. Unfortunately, in this sentence, "The reader is introduced to Sarah’s family; the French police take Sarah with her parents as they go to various houses arresting Jews," the semi-colon should be a period separating the two sentences, as these are two completely different ideas. Overall, well done.
The story of what happened to Sarah and those children could easily have carried the book. But I did get something from the book....a new piece of information. The round up of the children by the French was something new to me. I went to look for more details. There are so many great books out there on this horrible period. I just can't say this is the one I would recommend. It has interestingly been chosen for our Amnesty International Book Club for April. So it appears that my opinion does not match with that of others.
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