Run, Boy, Run- Book with an International Author

Review of Run. Boy, Run

A. Book Information

Orlev, Uri. Translated by Halkin, Hillel. 2003. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 0-618-16465-0.

B. Plot Summary

This is the true story of an eight-year old boy’s struggle for survival at the height of the Holocaust. Separated from his family, Srulik Frydman, who later calls himself Jurek Staniak, must forage the Polish countryside seeking shelter, food, and safety. Along the way he meets sympathizers who offer refuge, but also meets anti-Semitism.

C. Critical Analysis (Including Cultural Markers)

This true story told by Uri Orlev, himself a Holocaust survivor, is authentic on all levels. What makes Run, Boy, Run such a poignant experience for the reader is seeing the experience through the eyes of an eight-year old boy who loses his innocence and naivety somewhere in the Polish countryside as he escapes prejudice and the horrors of the Holocaust. The accurate depiction of the Holocaust is told as only survivors could, purely honest and unabated, with no sensationalism.

Cultural markers can be found through out the story, including the language, characters, and setting. The book was originally published in Hebrew, and has been translated into English by Hillel Halkin.

The language in the story offers cultural markers tied to the Jewish culture and also to the time period of the Holocaust. The names are authentic, because they are the names of real people. Terms such as ration tickets, Gestapo, marks and pfennigs, and partisans are all part of the experience of young Jurek, and are woven into the text with out the need of foot-notes or a glossary.

The characters of the story are real and universal. The reader can at once identify with young Jurek, as his struggle is relived with every turn of the page. At one time in the story, Jurek acquires a dog that becomes his only trusted friend. Only later the dog protects Jurek from a rabid dog in the forest and has to be shot by a group of foresters. The universality of animal companionship makes Jurek all the more real and identifiable.

The setting of the story begins in the Warsaw ghetto and weaves itself through out the Polish countryside. The story takes us across rivers and deep into the woods. The setting is authentic, as depicted through the eyes of someone who has crawled on his belly through the forest floors, slept in the protection of tall trees, and etched enough food from berry bushes and birds killed by slingshot, all to escape capture.

Orlev masterfully retells Jurek Staniank’s amazing story, and allows the reader insight into the world of the Holocaust from a young child’s perspective.

D. Review Excerpts

Horn Book had this to say about the book, “Part of the strength of Orlev's writing rests with its spareness...in this novel of heartbreaking resilience."

Bulletin of the Center for Children says, "This is one of the better examples of Holocaust fiction in depicting the vagaries of human nature as villainous and heroic acts emerge unexpectedly, even casually, from a shifting wartime population threatened with catastrophe."

Publishers Weekly : "Orlev...devotes this memorable novel to the extraordinary true story of an orphaned Jewish boy's experiences in Poland during the war."

Review accessed at:

http://www.amazon.com/Mildred-Batchelder-Honor-Book-Awards/dp/0618164650

E. Connections

Other books for young people about The Holocaust.

· Bitton-Jackson, Livia. I HAVE LIVED A THOUSAND YEARS: GROWING UP IN THE HOLOCAUST. ISBN 0689823959

· Bergman, Terar. ALONG THE TRACKS. ISBN 0395745136

· Kornreich, Rena. RENA’S PROMISE. ISBN 0807070718

· Radin, Ruth. ESCAPE TO THE FOREST: BASED ON A TRUE STORY OF THE HOLOCAUST. ISBN 0060285206

· Watts, Irene. FINDING SOPHIE. ISBN 0887766137