more from Andrea Cheng

A Hungarian girl comes to terms with being a Jew during WWII.

Honors

Best Children's Books of the Year, Bank Street College of Education

Ohioana Book Award finalist in the Juvenile category —Ohioana Library Association

Books for the Teen Age —NYPL

Best Recent Historical Fiction: A Selective List by Michael Cart

Notable Children's Books of Jewish Content: The Best of the Bunch —Association of Jewish Libraries

selection for Cincinnati's city-wide reading program

Reviews

 “In this promising debut novel, Cheng sensitively mines her mother’s experiences as the daughter of assimilated Jews in 1930s and ’40s Budapest. …The author inhabits the character so smoothly that her story reads almost like a memoir; readers will almost certainly be moved by her evocation of Marika’s lost world.”
     —Publishers Weekly

“Cheng brings Marika and her world alive with her simple prose, investing readers in the protagonist’s life. There is a lot of World War II and Holocaust literature available for young people, but libraries needing a fresh voice could consider adding this intriguing offering.”
     —School Library Journal

“A child’s-eye view written in beautifully spare prose gives a special quality to this historical piece. … Marika is a poignant emotional portrait.”
     —Kirkus Reviews

“The compelling novel is less a war story than it is the story of an interesting young life obscenely interrupted by Hitler’s war.”
     —Horn Book

“The clear, quiet prose ultimately tells a riveting story, not only about the Nazi terror and Hungarian anti-Semitism, but also about families and their secrets.”
     —Booklist

“The plot is written with such clarity that instead of being overburdened with events,it flows as a compelling Holocaust story. Family dynamics, history, and the common experiences of growing up are blended into an excellent historical text.”
     —Library Media Connection

about the author

Andrea Cheng teaches English as a Second Language in Cincinnati, Ohio, where she lives with her husband and their three children. She is the daughter of Hungarian Jewish immigrants and grew up among extended family members, many of whom survived the Holocaust. Her family spoke mostly Hungarian at home. Ms. Cheng attended Cornell University, where she studied Chinese. She is married to a Chinese American, himself the son of immigrants. She has written many books for children.