The Sky over Rebecca

This is a haunting tale, both literally and metaphorically, about a young Swedish girl Kara and what happens when she discovers mysterious footprints and then a snow angel in pristine snow, near a lake.  She sees these as she is going home on the bus and decides to investigate.  What she discovers is an impossibility, or so she thought.  Kara finds a young girl called Rebecca and her brother Samuel, who seem to be living on a small island, but they are in desperate straits and very scared.  It seems that Kara has managed to go back in time to the 1940s and is also in Denmark, rather than Sweden.  The children are Jewish and survivors of a German attack on their home and they hope they can reach neutral territory.  Mixed with this heart wrenching story we have the relationship that Kara has with her mother and grandfather, as well as the disagreeable Lars, from her school.  How she is able to negotiate all of these issues and hopefully do something positive for Rebecca and Samuel provides a tale that remain with you for a long time.

Occasionally a book comes along that really gets through to your heart as well as your head and I think that this is one of those books for me.  Whilst the groups of children suffer from different problems, they are none the less, just as upsetting to the individuals.  At the heart of this story, we have the importance of family, regardless of what that might look like.  It is also about the amazing strength and empathy that people can display in their hour of need.  This really is one of those books that gives us a slightly different slant on the experience of war, dealing as it does, with those who suffered occupation and this makes it even more poignant.  This is highly recommended.