Book Review: Sarah's Key (Tatiana de Rosnay)

*Today's post is written by Christina Sutton, the school librarian at Clay Elementary. 

Sarah's Key is a wonderful realistic picture of Paris during 1942 - and the "roundup" of Jewish people.  (The Paris police were actually the ones that did the "roundup" which adds to this terrible part of history.)  A lot of us may know about the Holocaust in general, but not necessarily the role that Paris and other places may have played in this part of history that changed our world forever.

Here is the School Journal write up that I found on Titlewave - it's a great summary.

 Library Journal (May 15, 2007)

Pivotal to this novel is the key in ten-year-old Sarah's pocket. It opens the cupboard in which she has hidden her younger brother from the French police, who are rounding up Jews in Paris. It is July 16, 1942, and Sarah, along with her parents and hundreds more people, are brought to the stadium Vélodrome d'Hiver, where they spend several days without food or water before being sent to French camps en route to Auschwitz. Arriving at the camp Beaune-la-Rolande, Sarah is separated from her parents and manages to escape. Nearby farmers not only protect but eventually adopt her. In alternating chapters, we read of American-born journalist Julia Jarmond, who's working on a magazine story about the "Vel'd'Hiv" roundup on its 60th anniversary. Because the grandparents of Julia's husband moved into the apartment once owned by Sarah's family, we learn what Sarah discovers when she finally returns ten years later with the key-knowledge so traumatic that it changes Julia's life forever. This debut by French-born de Rosnay has been translated into 15 languages and will surely be an international best seller. Masterly and compelling, it is not something that readers will quickly forget. Highly recommended.-Lisa Rohrbaugh, East Palestine Memorial P.L., OH Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.