Annika Thor

It’s been four years since Stephie Steiner and her younger sister Nellie arrived from Vienna as Jewish refugees in Sweden. Stephie is in her final year of grammar school and boards in town with her friend May’s family, while Nellie still lives on the island with her host family. Stephie has many worries. She is in her last year of grammar school. Will the relief committee pay for her to continue her schooling, or will she be forced to leave school and get a job like almost all of the other girls her age? Why is her friend Vera behaving so strangely? Why has Nellie become sullen, angry, and distant? By far her biggest worry is the health and welfare of her parents, who are imprisoned in the Theresienstadt concentration camp.

I loved A Faraway Island, the first book in this quartet. It reminded me quite a bit of Anne of Green Gables. I became invested in then twelve-year-old Stephie’s story, and I want to see how her story ends. The books increasingly address more adult themes as Stephie ages, and this book includes themes that would be more appropriate for older teens, about the age that Stephie is in the book (15-16).… (more)