Book
Summary
Odette is a young girl living in Paris with her family in
the midst of World War II. They are Polish Jews who have lived in Paris for
several years. Odette’s father must join the army but is quickly captured,
becoming a Nazi prisoner-of-war. It soon
becomes unsafe for Jews in Nazi-occupied Paris. Odette is moved deep into the
French countryside where she must pretend to be a Catholic peasant girl and
learn to keep many secrets in order to survive. Inspired by the life of the real Odette Meyers,
this moving free-verse novel is a story of triumph over adversity.
APA
Reference of Book
Macdonald, M. (2013). Odette’s
secrets. New York, NY: Bloomsbury.
My
Impressions
My first real understanding of the atrocities of the
Holocaust came while I was in high school.
It may have been mentioned in a history book before then but it was when
I watched the movie QBVII - and saw the film clips of the camps being liberated
- that I began to understand what had happened. I have read many Holocaust
stories since then but have only recently begun to learn about what happened to
the Jews living in Paris during the Nazi occupation. That is the basis of Odette’s Secrets. Odette Meyers was a real little girl that lived in
Paris with her family. Maryann Macdonald found her autobiography and was
granted permission to retell it for children today. Macdonald chose to tell the
story using Odette's voice. This is somewhat complicated because young Odette does
not always sound like a five year old - but more like an adult remembering what
she went through at that time. The book is a little slow at first but the
free-verse helps you get into the story and then you will want to read it to
the end.
What
the Professionals Say
Kirkus
~
Introspective and accessible, this fictionalized history of a Jewish child
surviving the Nazi occupation of France uses an elegant simplicity of language.
Odette, quite young, lives comfortably in a Paris
apartment “on a cobblestone square / with a splashing fountain.” Watching a
newsreel, she sees “soldiers march, / their legs and arms straight as sticks. /
A funny-looking man with a mustache / shouts a speech.” The next day, she sees
a Jewish-owned store with smashed windows. Mama and Papa are secular, but “[w]e
are Polish Jews because / Mama’s and Papa’s parents and grandparents / in
faraway Poland / are all Jews.” Papa joins the French army and is taken
prisoner; yellow stars are assigned; Mama sends Odette out of Paris. For 2 1/2
years, Odette practices Catholicism in one village and then another, growing
attached to religious ritual and the countryside. Macdonald’s free verse uses
unadorned images: a blanket from Odette’s devoted (Christian) godmother;
schoolchildren pounding out “La Marseillaise” on desks with their fists to
drown out rowdy German soldiers; those same children rolling Odette in a thorn
bush when they suspect her secret. Odette’s first-person voice matures subtly
as she grows in age and in comprehension of the war’s horrors.
Based on the real Odette Meyers (nee Melspajz), this
thoughtful, affecting piece makes an ideal Holocaust introduction for readers
unready for death-camp scenes. (timeline, historical photographs, author’s
note) (Historical verse fiction. 9-15)
2012, Dec. 12. [Review of the book Odette’s Secrets by M. MacDonald]. Kirkus. Retrieved from https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/maryann-macdonald/odettes-secrets/
A
Suggestion for Use in a Library Setting
Can there ever be too many Holocaust books? There are so
many different stories to tell and every story has the potential to impact the
world in a positive way to remind us that prejudice and hatred are never
acceptable. And that one person being willing to help can make a difference
between life and death. This seems to be a particularly relevant topic in today’s
world. As difficult as it might be to present a program on the Holocaust, it
might be appropriate for Holocaust Remembrance Day to have a time with teens to
help them understand how the war and the Holocaust affected the lives of
children and teens. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum uses an exhibit
called Daniel’s Story to allow visitors a glimpse into what happened in Germany
from 1933 and 1945 through the eyes of a Jewish child. It is a composite of
many diary entries from many different children. Something similar could be
done using a variety of books such as Odette’s
Secrets. Other books to include are Karen Levine’s Hana’s Suitcase, Phillip Hoose’s The Boys Who Challenged Hitler: Knud Pedersen and the Churchill Club;
Susan Campbells Bartoletti’s Hitler Youth:
Growing up in Hitler’s Shadow, Lois Lowry's Number the Stars, Leon Leyson’s The
Boy on the Wooden Box, and Loic Dauvillier’s Hidden: A Child’s Story of the Holocaust. The program would be a
remembrance - each book would be “booktalked” from the viewpoint of someone in
the book - introducing the teens to that person to briefly give them an idea of
what the war was like from their perspective. If possible, a guest speaker from
the Dallas Holocaust Museum would also be invited to speak at the event.
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