Han Nolan

Eleanor Crowe is 16, opinionated, and pregnant - very pregnant. She's been in trouble, in juvie twice, and isn't really open to suggestions from her parents, or anyone else. She marries her boyfriend, Lam, under pressure. She's confused, but not really ready to listen to anyone. Elly and Lam move into the weight loss camp her new in-laws run, while her parents return to their work with orphans in Kenya. On their wedding night, Lam leaves to party with his friends - something Elly can't do show more anymore, and isn't willing to do. As Elly is thrown into camp life, some aspects improve, and she proves to be better with campers than she ever thought. At the same time, her married life goes downhill.
Elly is cranky, defensive, and confused, but she is a fairly likable character. Her husband, not so much - but readers will see that right away.
Books about teen pregnancy have changed quite a bit over time, but this is a not a pretty little story with a happy ending. I had trouble putting it down, and ended up reading it in one sitting. Upper middle school and high school readers will enjoy this. And I need to find some other titles by this reader. show less

Let me begin with, you should definitely read this book.
I started this book and could have devoured it all in one sitting but I stopped halfway through because I was worried I'd get nightmares! Brilliantly written, it was a very good description of what life would have been like for a Jewish person in concentration camps, as Chana saw a lot, from Lodz ghetto to Auschwitz, and you really felt the fear and the sadness with Hilary and Chana. It was a little disturbing, while not graphic, but show more NOTHING was sugarcoated. As testament to just how moving parts of this book is, I am not one to cry while reading books and watching movies, but this book had me in tears at the loss of two particular family members (at once).
Anyone and everyone should read this book, one of the best I've ever read. show less

Sixteen-year-old Eleanor has a great voice in this book, pure stubbonness and grumpy teen. Grumpy, pregnant teen to boot. The story of her pregnancy, her ambivalent feelings for her new husband, and the careening between hope and despair (especially the decision between adoption and keeping the baby) all feel authentic and realistic. And there are just great lines like: "Now I remember why I fell in love with Lam. When it's us against the world, he always makes sure we win." The happy ending show more is a bit too convenient and abrupt but from Eleanor's teenaged point of view, that's all she needs to know for the moment. show less

For some reason, I expected this book to be more about Hillary and less about Chana. I felt a little left out of Hillary’s story, the life of a neo-Nazi. We learn snips of her life, parts of her past, but never really see the whole picture and while I certainly recognize the need to tell Chana’s story of being a Jew during WWII, I felt as if leaving Hillary out of the book so often made her sudden change from hateful to kindhearted a little sudden and somewhat unbelievable. I doubted show more that someone with that much hate in their heart could simply be shown the life of a person they hate and suddenly repent and heal deep down in their soul.

This is not to say that I disliked the book. I enjoyed reading every page and easily found myself within Chana’s life, experiencing her struggles and heartaches. So many things were done in the war and it is important o remember them. IF I Should Die Before I Wake is a good book for remembering all of what happened. It manages to put every stage of life for the Jews into 293 pages, from wearing the star and walking the streets freely to leaving for the ghetto, to finally being in the camps. Inside the camp it shows all the ways of life most people have heard of, the struggle for survival, the fear of the gas chamber, illness and inner strength. The reader also gets to glimpse the selection of workers and the kinds of mostly meaningless jobs they were sent to. One of the most interesting features in the telling of this story was the ability to see how the Germans worked people against each other to bring them down, putting one person against another so that even a friend could betray you. It was something I had rarely experienced in any form of Holocaust retelling and having experienced it now, I am surprised that it could have been left out so often elsewhere. We often see how Germans treated Jews, but not how they made Jews treat each other. It brought another dimension to a very human story of remembrance. show less