Children of the Stars
Jacob and Moses Stern’s well-known playwright parents have fled south from the Nazis, leaving the boys behind. This book begins on July 16, 1942, the day of the Vel’ d’Hiv’ Roundup in Paris, in which the French police arrested more than 13,000 French Jews, including more than 4,000 children, and held them at the Vélodrome d’Hiver. The two brothers, along with another boy, manage to overpower a policeman and escape. Then the brothers begin their journey south, searching for their parents who may still be at their last known address.
Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, the little town in southeast central France that saved more than a thousand Jews, and perhaps as many as 5,000, is one of the locales for this story. Mario Escobar, the author, was able to show some of the tenuousness and danger involved in that effort.
The publisher describes this novel as an inspiring tribute to the human spirit, calling attention to the many everyday people who sacrificed their own safety to help the brothers on their way. In his preface, Escobar explains that the book gave him “the chance to return to the mysterious territory of childhood.”
Sadly, it didn’t give me that chance. I never felt as though I were actually seeing 1942 Nazi-occupied France or Vichy France through the eyes of children. In fact, I didn’t feel as though I were experiencing 1942 at all. The dialogue felt contrived, with especially the older of the boys pontificating like an adult. In fact, the characters all sounded much alike. Beyond that, I disliked the parents who had fled to safety, leaving their two sons behind. And then I disliked myself for feeling judgmental. Both those feelings left me outside the suspension of disbelief that is necessary to enjoy fiction.
