Upon the Head of the Goat
A Childhood in Hungary 1939-1944 (Newbery Honor Book)
ISBN10: 0374480796
ISBN13: 9780374480790
Trade Paperback
224 Pages
$10.99
CA$14.99
A Newbery Honor Book
A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year
Winner of the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for Nonfiction
Winner of the Janusz Korczak Literary Award
To nine-year-old Piri, war was only a word until the German soldiers came, closing the borders and turning her summer vacation at her grandmother's farm into a year-long stay—a year during which she learned far too much about fear and fighting. Returning to her home in Hungary when the borders reopened, Piri discovered that life would never be the same again. For with Hitler in power, no place was safe if you were Jewish . . .
Reviews
Praise for Upon the Head of the Goat
"This is a book that should be read by all those who are interested in the Holocaust and what it did to young and old."—Isaac Bashevis Singer
"Powerful . . . Heartrending . . . Piri's point of view adds poignancy to an account of one of the great tragedies of our time."—The Horn Book
"At the outbreak of World War II, 9-year-old Piri is visiting her grandmother in the Ukrainian countryside and is unable to return to her family in the Hungarian town of Beregszász. Aranka Siegal, the Piri of the narrative, finally comes home the following year but finds her life forever changed: her father is serving on the Russian front, and her mother's attempt to secure passage to America for her children fails . . . Food and supplies are scarce, and despite new restrictions, Rise Davidowitz maintains her family's traditional customs and tries to hold her family together until she and Iboya, Piri, Sandor and Joli are taken . . . to Auschwitz in 1944 . . . A sensitive portrait of a remarkable young girl and her family."—School Library Journal (starred review)
"Siegal records one of the most powerful accounts yet written by a survivor of the Third Reich."—Publishers Weekly