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It's the summer of 1939. Two Jewish sisters from Vienna—12-year-old Stephie Steiner and 8-year-old Nellie—are sent to Sweden to escape the Nazis. They expect to stay there six months, until their parents can flee to Amsterdam; then all four will go to America. But as the world war intensifies, the girls remain, each with her own host family, on a rugged island off the western coast of Sweden.
Nellie quickly settles in to her new surroundings. She’s happy with her foster family and soon favors the Swedish language over her native German. Not so for Stephie, who finds it hard to adapt; she feels stranded at the end of the world, with a foster mother who’s as cold and unforgiving as the island itself. Her main worry, though, is her parents—and whether she will ever see them again.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Awards
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Release date
December 7, 2010 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9780307746498
- File size: 173443 KB
- Duration: 06:01:20
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Languages
- English
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Levels
- Lexile® Measure: 680
- Text Difficulty: 3
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Reviews
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November 30, 2009
Twelve-year-old Stephie and eight-year-old Nellie Steiner, two Jewish sisters, are forced to leave their home and their parents in Vienna when the Nazis invade, and are placed with different families on an unfamiliar Swedish island (“Gray-brown cliffs and rocks extend along the edge of the ocean.... The end of the world
, Stephie thinks. This must be the end of the world
”). While their parents plan to meet up with them in a few months to escape to America, as time passes and the war advances, hope begins to fade. Adapting to Swedish life is easy and fun for Nellie, but Stephie struggles with the chilly disposition of her caretaker, Aunt Märta. She is a good student, taking to the Swedish language quickly, but she remains an outsider in school. Throughout the year Stephie suffers hardships big and small, and is conflicted after she and her sister are baptized Pentecostal. Thor's debut novel, inspired by true events and first in a series of four books, depicts a vivid and sometimes frightening picture of life as a WWII refugee, as well as the complexities of sisterhood. Ages 8–12.
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