Camps Books

I had enjoyed the last children's book by this author team.This one is a quick read and so I was able to finish it during a sitting in a local bookstore.I thought it might make a good gift for my young niece(who is the picked-upon "runt" in the family).It will be the perfect gift for her! From my little bit of online research,this story is based on a real-life incident from the childhood of former Mayor Koch and his kid sister,Patty. Growing up,Little Ed viewed Patty the way most big brothers see their younger sibling--a royal nuisance whose main reason for living is to cramp their style.Little Patty knows she is willing and more than able to rough it with Eddie and his pals if he'd only let her hang with them.Well, on a family outing in the woods, something dramatic happens that no doubt changes the nature of their relationship from that point forward.It's a story that will surely resonate with any young girl that has an older sibling,and it might even make an impact on a few older brothers out there who have been taking their little sis for granted.Real cute story--well told--terrific color illustations.I look forward to my niece's reaction when she reads it.She'll love it!

All younger siblings, and older siblings too, can identify with this tender and sweet natured story. As they did in their previous family tale, Ed Koch and his little sister Patty convey an important message
about responsibility, following rules, and the true affection between siblings even when the younger ones want to tag along with the big kids. Little sister Patty learns that even independent and bright little kids should follow rules and that older siblings can be very impressive in an emergency. An adventure story with great illustrations and an excellent lesson. My grandkids loved this book because it seemed to be their story,too.

At first i did not look forward to reading this book. But i was at work, and that was the only one i had in my pack so i started reading it. I could not put it down, it was interesting and well written. If anyone has an interest in the Gulag system's, i'd recomend reading this one along with the Russian Gulag books to get an idea of how diffent cultures treat their prisoners.

I have to say that this is a truly fantastic book!

When I first bought it I have to admit I thought It was by the `other' Kate Saunders (the not quite so famous romantic author)-I have to admit I thought it was a funny title for a romance!!- but despite my usual preference for the softer side of life I loved every beautifully crafted word of this.

All I can say is, if this Kate Saunders wrote romantic fiction as well, I would be first in line to buy it.

This book fills the gap that the Gulag Series is missing...The Personal Views..Much of the books on the gulag are scholarly estimates and observations, without the first hand eyewitness to the events. This book is created from exceprts from little heard of books about the Gulag published throughout its history, from the Time of The Great purge up To the Time when cold war tensions were "Loosening Up", when in fact the same hard conditions persisted...
The books writing quality as a whole is very good, the book is intresting and intriging to read, and also conveys deep details and vivid descriptions of the Gulag...Very much recommended to all readers.

"Enemies of the State" provides a riveting look into the slave-labor prisons of the Communist world during several decades of the 20th century. It brings history alive to a whole new generation of Americans who may be only vaguely aware of the oppression, torture and viciousness imposed on their countrymen by totalitarian leaders like Stalin, Mao, and Castro. The book contains 10 first-person accounts by people who spent years wrongfully imprisoned in slave-labor camps. Very much like the first-person accounts of Jews held in German concentration camps during the Holocaust, "Enemies of the State" also includes historical background and explanations of the political themes of the times. The book is factual and compelling for anyone over the age of 12. It is a great resource for high school or college students, and teachers and college professors. The general public will also find this book to be fascinating reading, although it is not for anyone with a weak stomach. The tortures and degradations described in the book are beyond imagination, but they are real and are presented in painful and vivid detail. Anyone with a love of history, however, will find this book to be an important addition to their library. I highly recommend it for youths and adults, and I especially encourage home schoolers to consider including this book in their studies.

Adventurer and author Walt Peterson does it again! With son Michael, he has produced a guide to Baja for those who want to explore this place of many wonders by RV. Walt and Michael provide an extraordinary book, filled with all the information RVers will need to have a really great adventure in Baja. For those who prefer to rough it, Walt's acclaimed Baja AdventureBook is just the ticket

Probably the best book on the Baja I have in my collection. From the border to Cabo Walt and his son Michael can show you the best of a wonderful vacation area. And I bought it used for $10.00 at Amazon.com.....

When I was reading this book, it made me so mad because of some of the things the Flamingo's do to Stephanie and her friends. But, Stephanie and her friends finally get the ultimate revenge! I couldn't put this book down! I recommend this book to any girl!

Stephanie, Allie, and Darcy have all been best friends since the sixth grade. They all have finally turned 14 and are now allowed at the community pool without an adult. While at the pool, the three friends meet two other girls their age. Kayla and Anna. Together they have formed a little kids camp called Club Stephanie. They meet with the kids for four hours each weekday. The Flamingoes, a group of tough older girls who have dedicated their life to getting revenge on Stephanie and wearing all pink all the time, had tried to start their own summer camp, but it flopped. Now they want revenge even more. Stephanie got this great idea to have a summer dance to raise money to keep the community pool open and the Flamingoes called the newspaper and said it was their idea. Stephnie had been going out with one of the lifeguards and Rene like him too, so she decided to get him from Stephanie no matter what. Stephanie had written Rick, the lifguard, a note to tell him how she felt about him and put it in his backpack. Rene switched it for a phony one that she wrote that said Stephanie thought he was a bad kisser. Rick avoided Stephanie for a while, but then they finally about what Rene had done. Rick and Stephanie went to the dance-a-thon together and finally got back at the Flamingoes because Anna hooked up the sterio system to the girls change room and so everyone heard Rene talking about how the dance-a-thon. She said the dance-a-thon wasn't really her idea so everyone knew it was Stephanie's idea. The Flamingoes were finally put in their place and Stephanie and Rick danced the full five hours of the dance-a-thon and made over two hundred dollars for the pool. Also a father of one of the kids from Club Stephanie donated ten thousand dollars. The pool was going to stay for good and Stephanie was a hero. I recommend this book to anyone who likes to read.

Whether you're interested in WWII or not you'll love this book. Wonderfully written, this emotional tale of love under the most dire circumstances is sure to make you laugh, cry, feel. Margaret and Jerry Sams are an inspiration to all. And even at 90 their love is still as strong as ever.

This very interesting autobiography is the story of a conventional young American housewife who becomes separated from her husband in the chaos of the Philippines of 1942 and is imprisoned with her young son in a brutal Japanese internment camp. In her struggle for survival she meets and falls in love with a fellow prisoner, whose child she bears, at great risk, and in the face of opposition from fellow inmates and captors alike.
Sams' story, expertly and sensitively edited, is a frank and touching love story as well as an epic of survival, and will be of interest to students of 20th-century American culture and mores as well as WWII readers.

(The "score" rating is an unfortunately ineradicable feature of the page. This reviewer does not "score" books.)

Shame on the Germans, shame on the American government.
This sad tale recounts in vivid terms the horrors of Germany.
Bard relates the horrors of the holocaust with the convincing detail and exhaustive research that ranks with the best of any account of that. The fact that the victims in this case were all Americans trapped in German territory makes the account somehow more personal.

The sadness of American government callousness about these victims is enormous. The fact that greater effort was not made to rescue citizens in the early days is a result of the anti immigration atmosphere of the country. The fact that adequate acknowledgement and compensations was not made to Americans who spent time in concentration and slave camps is tragic and an injustice that Mr. Bard should be commended for exposing.

Mr Bard writes in clear and interesting style, carefully researches his material, and effectively martials his arguments, highly recomended

This book tells the actual way that our soldiers were treated by the German army. My father was held at Berga as a POW. I never thought that the way he behaved towards me and our family was due to the war but now I haave changed my mind. Since his death I have found out through this wonderful book the reasons he hated Rooservelt, Red Cross and why he had a distrust of the dept of vetrans, and the vetrans hospital. I wish that I could get a copy of this book so that my children and grandchildren could know what a high cost their Grandfather paid for thier freedom. The book's only prombem was that it foused only on the Jewish point of view. My Father like many others was non-Jewish and held there too. The rest of the citizens need to know about teir treatment too.

This book deals with the concepts of friendship, hardship, sharing, and the reality of life for some children in the world. It is sad but heartwarming. The large number of children around the world being displaced because of war, famine, natural disasters and more make this book an important tool in helping to discuss this uncomfortable subject with your children.

Based on co-author Khadra Mohammed's experiences with refugees in Peshawar, a city on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, Four Feet, Two Sandals is a children's picturebook about ten-year-old Lina and her young friend who each discover one of a wonderful pair of sandals. Together they must solve the problem of how to share one pair of sandles between four feet! As they wait and hope for their names to appear on a list for a new home, the sandals become a symbol of their fast friendship - a bond that will endure even when one of them finally has the opportunity to escape the hard conditions and live in a new land. The broad brush strokes of illustrator Doug Chayka draw the reader in to the harsh and barren world of the refugees, where positive human relationships are an particular treasure amid the daily difficulty of survival. A thoughtful yet serious picturebook, highly recommended for children's public library and personal collections.

Isabella Leitner cannot forgive the German and Hungarian people for their silence during the atrocities that were perpetrated upon the Jews during the Holocaust. As a Jew living in Hungary, she wass ubjected to constant racial hatred by the townspeople and the sadistic behavior of the brutal Hungarian gendarmes. Isabella's family is thrown into a ghetto and forced to live in a small, confined area with many other families. When the SS men round up the Jews, Isabella's family is forced out on to the streets where her mother is severely beaten. Isabella's nightmare begins at this point. Isabella's father attempted to earn his family their freedom from the anti-Semitic Hungary but government officials impeded their release. At every juncture, the father was unable to secure his family's exit from Hungary. Isabella and her family feared for their lives because they knew that their Hungarian neighbors could not be trusted to protect them from the SS. In fact, Isabella believed that her neighbors "would be Hitler's willing accomplices" when the bell tolled for the Leitners. On May, 29, 1944, Isabella's worst fears were realized. The SS rounded up the Jews to take them to the camps as the Hungarian townspeople watched. These good people stood by as the Germans marched in and led many of their neighbors to their death. The Gentiles knew what Hitler and the SS were doing to the Jews, Isabella believes. The Gentiles felt a

camaraderie, a oneness with Hitler, she says. Hitler exploited their hatred of the Jews and they remained silent while six million were sent to their death. Isabella lost her mother in the concentration camp. Her mother was too weak and frail to fight after the guards had beaten her during the round-up. Yet the Leitner girls formed a bond during their stay at Auschwitz. They kept each other alive and forced the others to fight against disease, lethargy, and the destruction of the soul. The concentration camps bonded them to each other and they maintained that bond throughout their lives. After spending time in the Auschwitz camp, the sisters were moved to Birnbaumel and then on to Prauschnitz, where the Jewish prisoners mingled withthe townspeople in this small town. Yet no town resident would help the Jews. They remained silent as the SS guards paraded them through the town. Isabella realizes many years later that "you will not find a single German who lived in Prauschnitz who ever saw a single one of us." These German people ignored the atrocities because (in their minds) the Jews were dirty animals who deserved extermination, she says. Leitner cannot forgive these people for ignoring the pleas of these prisoners. The Prauschnitz citizens allowed Isabella and her sisters to be tortured by the German guards. For Leitner, there is no forgiveness. Isabella lost her sister Cici during this time. When the sister

escaped from the unsuspecting guards, Cici was the only one to remain with the SS guards. Isabella learns many years later that Cici was "dragged for three long weeks on the death march to Bergen-Belsen where she was killed." Not one German person helped her sister. In 1960, Isabella and her husband traveled through Europe but Isabella wanted to avoid anything that would remind her of the German people and their silence during her internment in the camps. Yet she cannot avoid the Germans because the German people are now the main group of tourists who travel through Europe. When Isabella sees them, she reports, she bristles but ignores them, and says she doesn't mind the young ones so much because they are an innocent generation. It's the older ones. At Pere-Lachaise, Isabella comes face to face with her worst fears. She encounters a group of German people. These German people laugh and carry on, to her horror. When she discovers that they are truly

Germans, she recoils in horror as if "acid had been hurled in her face." She knows that any one of the men could have been her jailer. She knows that "they are the ones." For Isabella, these Germans are the same as the ones that stood by and watched as six million Jews were led to their death. Isabella cannot forgive them or the Hungarians who remained silent as her family was systematically destroyed. She leaves Pere-Lachaise with the knowledge that she can never forgive the silent citizens who were accomplices to Hitler's reign of terror. Leitner's memoir is a harrowing testament to the horrors of the Holocaust.

This was the best account of life in a German concentration camp that I have ever read. Once I started reading it I could not put it down. The reader gets so ingrossed in the book that you not only feel for the characters, but you feel as if you are one of the characters. This book is a must read for any reader who enjoys Holocaust books, or a reader who is just looking for a book that won't let you put it down.

Francine Christophe's account of her experiences at the French Concentration Camps at Poitiers, Drancy and Beaune-La-Rolande, it is a very interesting book. She tells the story in a very personal way. She leaves nothing out and tells an honest story about her experience in the camps. Her honest writing helped me understand the hardship that a whole group of children survived during War World 2. I would want people to read the book and see what those people went through at those camps.

It is horrible, very real and at the same time beautiful.