Tag: Suzy Zail

Alexander Altmann A10567 by Suzy Zail

Alexander Altmann stood in the dusty grey square, sweating. He looked up at the sun and guessed it was midday. His stomach growled. If he was home, his mother would be calling him to come in for lunch.

He felt his eyes start to well. “Stop it,” he said under his breath. “Stop feeling sorry for yourself.” He wiped his nose on his sleeve and waited for his number to be called. He didn’t need to look down at his arm at the number tattooed onto his skin. He knew it by heart. A10567.

The last time he’d heard his name was five weeks ago, maybe six. He hadn’t recognised his mother when she’d called out to him. Her head had been shaved and she wore mismatched shoes and a tattered dress that gaped at the neck and, for the first time since he’d stepped off the train, Alexander realised what he must look like.

 

Alexander Altmann stood in the dusty grey square, sweating. He looked up at the sun and guessed it was midday. His stomach growled. If he was home, his mother would be calling him to come in for lunch.

He felt his eyes start to well. “Stop it,” he said under his breath. “Stop feeling sorry for yourself.” He wiped his nose on his sleeve and waited for his number to be called. He didn’t need to look down at his arm at the number tattooed onto his skin. He knew it by heart. A10567.

The last time he’d heard his name was five weeks ago, maybe six. He hadn’t recognised his mother when she’d called out to him. Her head had been shaved and she wore mismatched shoes and a tattered dress that gaped at the neck and, for the first time since he’d stepped off the train, Alexander realised what he must look like.

Alexander Altmann is a fourteen-year-old boy and he’s in Buchenwald concentration camp. Every certainty, every connection he ever relied on has been stripped away. Even his name has been replaced by the number tattooed on his forearm. All that remains is memories and the need to survive. He cannot – will not – rely on anyone. He has to toughen up and forget his parents, his little sister Lili, his farm, his life, his beloved horses. To trust no one but himself. Not even Isidor who seems determined to be his friend, despite Alexander’s rejections. A job in the stables gives him a chance to work with horses, but it’s still a very dangerous place where a wrong word or action can mean beatings or death. The stakes intensify when Alexander is charged with breaking in the Commander’s wild new horse. Failure will mean death for them both.

Alexander Altmann’s life was comfortable and happy until Hitler began stripping Jews of all their rights and possessions. Their farm is given to others, his horses seized by the Nazis, his father taken away. All his notions of fairness, equity and justice are stripped away as he and fellow prisoners are dehumanised, starved and executed. Survival is an individual experience, even in a crowded prison camp. Alexander Altmann A10567 explores themes of loss, trust, survival, friendship and more. Alexander’s work with the scared horse he calls Midnight, reveals as much about Alexander and those around him as it does about horses. Alexander Altmann A10567 is a moving story about survival and integrity in the most brutal of circumstances. Recommended for upper-primary readers.

 


Alexander Altmann A10567, Suzy Zail Black Dog Books 2014 ISBN: 9781922179999

review by Claire Saxby, Children’s author and bookseller

www.clairesaxby.com

The Wrong Boy by Suzy Zail

Hanna Mendel has her life mapped out. She will wear her yellow dress to the dance on Saturday night and she will be a famous pianist. Just like her hero Clara Schumann. But she assumes a reasonable world. And in the days of WWII, there is a lack of reason. She and her family have been fortunate until now – even when a ghetto is declared in their Budapest street, they do not have to move. But then they are herded into rail cars and sent to Auschwitz.

They came at midnight, splintering the silence with their fists, pounding at our door until Father let them in. I tiptoed to my sister’s bed, threw back the covers and slid in beside her. She was already awake.

‘I hate them,’ I whispered. Mother didn’t like us using the word hate but there was not getting around it; I hated them. I hated their perfectly pressed uniforms and the way they pushed past Father, dragging the mud from their boots across Mother’s Persian rug. I hated them for nailing the synagogue doors shut and for burning our books. But mostly I hated them for how they made me feel: scared and small.

Hanna Mendel has her life mapped out. She will wear her yellow dress to the dance on Saturday night and she will be a famous pianist. Just like her hero Clara Schumann. But she assumes a reasonable world. And in the days of WWII, there is a lack of reason. She and her family have been fortunate until now – even when a ghetto is declared in their Budapest street, they do not have to move. But then they are herded into rail cars and sent to Auschwitz. Nothing could have prepared her – or anyone – for the horrors of Auschwitz. Hanna’s growing understanding of the environment she now inhabits leads her to desperation and despair. Throughout, she uses her music as an island of calm in her increasingly turbulent world. And then she sees Karl, handsome son of the cruel camp commandant.

Some teenagers transition from child to adult with only minor hiccups. Others, like Hanna and her sister Erika, have their childhood ripped from them in ways almost too brutal to believe. Except that evidence makes it impossible to refute. Some respond to the brutality by giving up, others by fighting. It’s impossible to imagine which response any individual will form, until they are faced with the unfaceable. Ignorance can be damaging, it can be protective. In The Wrong Boy, there are examples of many survival strategies. There are no longer any simple solutions or simple judgements that can be made. Characters are flawed and changeable, good and evil, and sometimes a mixture of both. Hanna is forged strong by her experiences, by the same characteristics that have enabled her to excel at piano-playing. ‘The Wrong Boy’ draws a compelling picture of life in a prison camp from the point of view of a determined but naïve teenage girl. Recommended for secondary readers.

The Wrong Boy

The Wrong Boy, Suzy Zail Black Dog Books 2012 ISBN: 9781742031651

review by Claire Saxby, Children’s Author

www.clairesaxby.com

This book is available from good bookstores or online from Fishpond.