No Pretty Pictures: A Child of War (Avon Camelot Books)

From age five to age 10, Lobel spent what are supposed to be carefree years hiding from the Nazis, protecting her younger brother, being captured and marched from camp to camp, and surviving completely dehumanising conditions. A terrifying story by any measure, Lobel's memoir is all the more haunting as told from the first-person, child's-eye view. Her girlhood voice tells it like it is, without irony or even complete understanding, but with matter-of-fact honesty and astonishing attention to detail, carving vivid, enduring images into readers' minds. On hiding in the attic of the ghetto: "We were always told to be very quiet. The whispers of the trapped grown- ups sounded like the noise of insects rubbing their legs together". On being discovered while hiding in a convent: "They lined us up facing the wall. I looked at the dark red bricks in front of me and waited for the shots. When the shouting continued and the shots didn't come, I noticed my breath hanging in thin puffs in the air." On trying not to draw the Nazis' attention: "I wanted to shrink away. To fold into a small invisible thing that had no detectable smell. No breath. No flesh. No sound."

It is a miracle that Lobel and her brother survived on their own in this world that any adult would find unbearable. Indeed, and appropriately, there are no pretty pictures here, and adults choosing to share this story with younger readers should make themselves readily available for explanations and comforting words. (The camps are full of excrement and death, all faithfully recorded in direct, unsparing language.) But this is a story that must be told, from the shocking beginning when a young girl watches the Nazis march into Krakow, to the final words of Lobel's epilogue: "My life has been good. I want more." (Ages 10 to 16) --Brangien Davis, Amazon.com

We have read portions to my daughter (age 8) who is familiar with and interested in the Holocaust. I think that my daughter found it empowering to know that against great odds Anita did survive.

Knowing Anita and her works over a period of many years, I never really knew her true story until I read her wonderful book.

I highly recommend it.


A moving book for the older reader and adults.   December 19, 1998
I found No Pretty Pictures a very moving book. The story of Anita Lobel's and her brother's survival and the clear feeling she gives for the time and the depth of the other characters is wonderful. The child's point of view, with its limited experience of the world, is done so faithfully, that I would hesitate to give this book to a child who is not already familiar with the holocaust. Terms like "dirty Hassids" are used without comment, her suspecion of other jews is not explained and she never seems to come to terms with her own identity as a jew and one who looks like one. Young readers, even the 9 to 13 year old it is reccommended for, could have used some adult viewpoint within the text to temper these.