Trish Marx

Narrated by young Tibor, this poignant picture-book explores the life of one Hungarian family before and during World War II, and their relationship to the hippopotamuses in the Budapest zoo. Although the family enjoy Sunday outings every week, Tibor and his siblings, Gabor and Eva, particularly love to go to the zoo and see the hippos. Kept warm by the hot springs in the city, the hippos are a popular attraction, and none more so than Hanna, a friendly (and very hungry) female hippo. But show more then the war comes, with soldiers everywhere, and the family stop visiting the zoo. A terrible winter leaves the rivers frozen, and the hippos huddling in their indoor enclosure, in danger of slowly starving to death. Fortunately, Tibor's Papa has an idea, and soon the citizens of Budapest are donating their straw slippers, doormats and hats to keep the hippos alive...

Apparently based upon true events, related to author Trish Marx when she was visiting the Budapest zoo, Hanna's Cold Winter presents an engaging family story, and a deeply moving historical drama. Tibor's family are ordinary people—his father works at a paprika factory—who find themselves caught up in terrible times. Despite this, they think of the welfare of the animals that they love, and act to save them when they are threatened. I really enjoyed the story, from the loving closeness of the human family, to the happy outcome for the hippos. I also greatly appreciated the artwork (it looks to be done in watercolor) from illustrator Barbara Knutson, who visited the Budapest zoo in order to create the visuals here. I did find myself wondering about the nutritional value of old straw—can straw-eating animals subsist on straw hats and mats, in emergencies?—and discovered, in the course of online searching, that the fate of the Budapest zoo animals during WWII was rather grim. Apparently the zoo was bombarded during the siege of Budapest, destroying most of the buildings and killing the majority of the animals. In the aftermath of the siege, the starving citizens ate most of the survivors, with only 15 animals of an initial 2,000 surviving the period. I looked on the zoo's history page for any mention of the story of Hanna and the hippos, but was unable to find it.

Trish Marx's brief afterword here mentions that more than 9,000 straw items were collected from the citizens of Budapest, in order to feed the hippos, and that Hanna and the hippos survived the war, so perhaps they were among those lucky fifteen. I realize it is outside the scope of the fictional story here, which is meant to be more uplifting—hope in dark times, and so on—but I wish that the author has elaborated on the larger story in her afterword. I also wish that she had provided a written source, rather that just stating that the story was told to her. All that being said, I still enjoyed this one, and recommend it to picture-book readers looking for stories set during World War II, or featuring the sadness of people and animals caught up in conflicts. show less

An engaging picture-book exploration of a difficult topic, even for adults - namely, the Israeli/Palestinian conflict - Sharing Our Homeland: Palestinian and Jewish Children at Summer Peace Camp looks at the wider issue through a narrow focus, telling the true story of two children who attend the Menashe Summer Peace Camp, run by Givat Haviva, an educational organization that works on social justice issues, particularly promoting peaceful coexistence between Jews and Arabs. Starting with an show more introduction to the two children - Alya, a Palestinian Israeli girl living in the Arab village of Meiser, in north-central Israel, and Yuval, a young Jewish Israeli boy living in Maor, a moshav (a cooperative farming community where property is individually owned) near Meiser - then moving through a brief overview of the history of the area, and the (most) recent conflict over it, the book devotes most of its space to the various activities at the camp: the fun and games, educational field trips to a kibbutz and to an Arab village, and the exciting sleepover which marks the end of camp.

As author Trish Marx, who has traveled to Israel five times, once with photographer Cindy Karp to document the story of the Peace Camp, notes in her afterword, this story offers a "message of peace and hope not often heard from this region." For that alone, it is most welcome! Informative, without being overwhelming, it presents its topic evenhandedly, focusing, when the subject of violence arises, mostly on its effects on the children being depicted. It's amazing to think that these children - all citizens of Israel - live so near to one another, and yet, save for the Peace Camp, have almost no interaction with one another, or with anyone from the 'other' community. Such rigid segregation, while not alone responsible for prejudice and a lack of understanding between communities, can surely not be a help in changing them either! One wishes that more children had an opportunity to attend such camps... after all, these children may be Palestinian and Jewish, but they are all Israeli citizens, living within Israel proper. But what about children living in the occupied territories of West Bank and Gaza? Of course no organization can do it all, so thank goodness for what the Peace Camp can do!

Highly recommended to anyone, be they parent, teacher or librarian, looking for quality children's non-fiction about this thorny topic, one which presents its information in a non-sensational, non-biased manner, and which also offers some hope for the possibility of progress. show less

Overall, I found this book to be really interesting to me. I thought it was cool how the author compared the school day in the US to one in China. I like how the author guided the book by stating the time of day first. Not only does it give you the time of day in the country you are reading it also gives you the time of day in the other county. For example, when the kids are arriving at school at 9:00 a.m. it states that it is 9:00 p.m. in China. Since the book is set up like this, it also show more gives the kids an opportunity to compare and contrast their school day to those in a different country and if they do the same thing at the same time. For example, they both eat lunch at the same time. I also enjoy how the book integrates the Chinese language by having a few of the basic/common words be in Chinese to help promote their language. The author provides readers with facts throughout the book to keep them interested. The book is also set-up as a "Flip-me-over-book" to represent how China and the USA are opposites of each other. When you want to learn more about the other country you have to flip the book over to mimic the idea of their geographical locations from each other. The pictures throughout the book correlate to what is being read; reinforcing the child's understanding especially when the kid doesn't understand the activity. Overall, the main idea of this book is to inform kids that both in the USA and China; schools do the same activities like one another even if they are in different places. I recommend this book to others, because it introduces students' to the concept of time and the Chinese language, simultaneously. show less

Kindergarten Day: China and USA was an amazing book that I would highly recommend for learning about diverse cultures. This book took each hour of the school day in a kindergarten class and explained what they did in the USA and then in China as well. I really enjoyed this book for the break down and the photographs. The book took each hour of the school day and had a clock displayed with the time, and then the subject at that time. The book then explained what the students would be learning show more and/or doing at that time. For example, at 12:00pm the clock displays 12:00 and the title is “Lunch”. In the USA the children eat very different food than the children in China and the differences in what they eat and how they eat are explained. I also really liked the real photographs throughout the book, for example there are photographs of the children singing songs in the morning. Having real photos of what the children are doing at each hour really helps for readers to understand what the children are learning and how. I believe the main idea of this book is to inform readers about the differences in school days in different countries. show less