I have heard SO many wonderful things about Catherine’s War by Julia Billet and Claire Fauvel. So. Many. I finally got my mitts on this graphic novel and I can’t stop thinking about it. This middle grade book shares a new perspective on Jewish children from France in exile during the Nazi regime. I have read such fascinating (and heartbreaking) stories about Jewish families in Germany but haven’t yet read about impacted individuals in France. Add on that this is a child’s perspective and it is makes a profound story exponentially bigger.
Set Me Up
Rachel Cohen hasn’t heard from her parents in a while. She’s been shuffled to safety from her home in France to The Children’s Home in Sevres. Her extracurricular responsibility while in hiding at this school (somewhat like a Montessori school) is to take photographs of everyday life. The school leadership learns that the Nazis are looking to deport a wild number of Jewish individuals. To keep the Jewish children safe, they’ve been assigned new identities. They are never to speak of their old lives or respond to their old (real) names again. Rachel becomes Catherine Colin.
Catherine befriends a little girl, Alice, who needs a big sister (or really, her mother) for guidance. When the school leaders hear that they have been reported by someone, they decide to divide up the Jewish children immediately and exile them to different areas in France. Luckily, Catherine and Alice can stay together but must leave the school at a moment’s notice.
This Doesn’t Feel Good…
Catherine and Alice are shuffled to safety and are expected to pitch in to their new ‘family’ and attend school. It felt so uncomfortable to read just imagining how these young girls tried to manage being away from their parents, losing their small network of friends from the school, being shoved into a new family setting all while living in fear of being reported. Could they really trust anyone in the chain – the people housing them, the townsfolk, each other?
All the while, Catherine continues to take photographs. She is talented for such a young age to capture these raw emotions and also gain the trust of her subjects.
Again, all while pretending to be someone she’s not, living in fear she’d be deported, worrying about her family. I don’t take for granted our safety here and this new perspective is so hard to read, but necessary.
Graphic Novel Hard Pass?
Graphic novels aren’t your thing? Middle grade books aren’t your interest or what you typically read? I get it. I thought it would be difficult to read and not exactly my jam. But. The awards this book has won, the praise it continues to get told me the juice was worth the squeeze.
And this book is SO worth it. Don’t care if you’re 18 or 40 or 70. This is such a new perspective on Jewish persecution and the Nazi regime. Please read this!
What other World War II books should I read? The bravery and heroism during this time is just mind-boggling and fascinating.