Honey Cake
by Joan Betty Stuchner, illustrated by Cynthia Nugent
ISBN 1-896580-37-8 |
The large print and easy-to-read text of this early chapter book makes it a good choice to introduce the Holocaust to younger readers. In age-appropriate language, without gory details,
the author communicates the sense of danger and desperation faced by
these Danish Jews. The almost ten-year-old narrator, David, begins the
story by telling us what life has been like since the Nazis invaded Denmark three years before, right before Passover.
He has a warm, loving family: a father, who is a baker, a brave older
sister, Rachel, who is a university student, and a supportive, kind
mother. The author does a good job of developing the characters, and
showing their bravery and the bravery of their non-Jewish friends.
David smuggles a map in a box of éclairs to help Rachel with her work
as a resistance courier around Copenhagen.
As her mother prepares to make a honey cake to welcome in the new year,
Rachel tells her that "A sweet year would be a year without
Nazis". Stuchner describes the rationing, how the Germans send most of the good Danish food to Germany,
and how, as their freedoms and comforts are taken away from them and
Hitler's net closes in, "all Danes dreamed of the secret taste of
freedom." The story ends with their neighbors smuggling them to Sweden in September 1943 to escape Hitler's orders to send all Danish Jews to concentration camps. In the Afterwords, the author describes the historical events upon which the fictional story
is based, and states that the majority of Danish Jews were saved by
their non-Jewish neighbors, like the Jensens of the story. Clever pen and ink,
richly drawn illustrations will hold the attention of young readers in
grades 3-5. The honey cake of the title symbolizes the normalcy of
celebrating the Jewish holidays
to which the family wishes they could return, and the author has
included "Mama's honey cake recipe for a Sweet New Year," with careful
instructions to
have an adult help with the oven and preparations. Recommended for ages 8 -11.-- Reviewed by Andrea Davidson. By Jewish Book World Magazine (New York, NY),
September 23, 2008
World War II (1939-1945) has begun. Denmark has been overrun by
the Germans. The Danes long to once more live in freedom. David
and his friends discover that there are subtle but important changes
in the lives of the residents of Copenhagen. Most puzzling to
David is the fact that his older sister, Rachel, rarely comes
home. David finally discovers that she is part of the Danish resistance.
He is later given a role of his own in the resistance. David and
his sister show readers what honor and real courage look like.
It is quite possible that the reader might find some good tears
in his or her eyes at the end of the tale. David is a fictional
character but the story is rooted in history. Honey Cake is sad,
scary and funny at the same time. The black and white illustrations
beautifully illustrate these feelings. Especially down to earth
is a drawing of David and his best friend marching in a mocking
manner behind the two Nazis who patrol their street; David's dad
is running after them in obvious alarm. This book is a good read
for anyone. It will be a special treat for children who read slowly
since the print is large and the writing is well crafted and direct.
A Stepping Stone Book. --Reviewer: Ali Fell, Children's Literature
The Center for Children's literature
by Kristine Wildner, Holy Apostles School, New Berlin, WI
Honey cake, down on the farm Jewish Journal, by Shoshana
Lewin Fischer, September 26, 2008
The Outlook on books Reviewed by Dvoira Yanovsky
Kids
can cool off with a book or two
Sometimes when you open a book, the look and feel of it is just
right, like a finely-tailored garment. Such a book is Honey
Cake. With its sepia cover, rough-trimmed pages, and old-fashioned
font, this novel resonates of a time past—in this case, of German-occupied
Denmark in the 1940s. The well-placed line drawings enhance
the text, so generous they make Honey Cake feel almost like
a graphic novel.
The story is told in the first person by David Nathan, a ten-year-old
Jewish boy living in Copenhagen. The other main characters are
his older sister Rachel, his best friend Elsa, as well as decent,
likeable adults—his teacher, parents, and the king—who are drawn
with sensitivity and humor.
The novel is staged like a movie—present time (1943), flashback
to the past (1940), present time (1943). Although this change
of time is somewhat confusing, the titles at the beginning of
each chapter help to keep the framework of the story clear.
A fast-paced story, based on real events, Honey Cake builds
suspense until the final scene—the family’s escape to Sweden.
Two letters written by David and Elsa serve as an authentic
dénouement. An afterword by the author places the fictional
events into historical context; a recipe for honey cake is a
delicious bonus.
Honey Cake would serve as a fine introduction to the story of
the German occupation of Denmark. Highly recommended for school,
synagogue, and public libraries.-- Anne Dublin, Journal
of American Jewish Librarians, AJL Newsletter, Feb/March. 2008
"There are so many ways of being brave," David's father
explains. Through this straightforward and informative story
of Jews in the Danish Resistance during World War II, the youngest
readers learn what life was like under Nazi occupation. It's
1943 Copenhagen, where shortages of food and fuel make it difficult
to run the family bakery. Everyone seems to have secrets, even
ten-year-old David's older sister Rachel and their parents.
When Papa sends David to deliver some eclairs, the boy suspects
it is more than a simple errand but remains calm under pressure,
knowing that he is contributing to something larger than himself.
While more happens to David than could possibly happen to one
ten-year-old boy, his tale conveys a wealth of historical detail,
from the famed horseback-riding King Christian to Victor Borge's
humor. Nugent's uneven pen-and-ink illustrations are jarring,
but the story itself moves along at a good clip. A fine offering
for readers not quite ready for Number the Stars. (recipe, afterword)
(Historical fiction. 6-9) --Kirkus Reviews July 15, 2008
There's something uplifting about this quiet portrayal of the
plight of Denmark's Jews in World War Two. Seen through the
eyes of a little boy, David, it traces the hopes and fears of
a typical Jewish family living in Copenhagen during the 1940s.
Cynthia Nugent€™s black and white sketches vividly bring to
life Betty Stuchner€™s delicately woven story. Like Anne Frank,
David is an observer, and it is his childlike simplicity which
makes the actions of the so-called sophisticated adult world,
full of its injustices and inhumanity, look incomprehensible.
It's his thoughts on the little pleasures in life that contrast
so strongly with the cruel adult world, like the smell of Mama€™s
freshly baked honey cake, which turn the apartment into a gingerbread
house, allowing everyone to forget, for a while, the bomber
planes droning over head and the soldiers on the street. -- By Richard Monte, Carousel
The
art of storytelling by Olga Livshin in Jewesh Independent
Random House AJL newsletter Feb/Mar
2008 review
BC
Bookworld by Louise Donnelly
How does one stand against tyranny? What's the true nature of
bravery? Big questions for an early-reader chapter book, but
Joan Betty Stuchner handles them with grace and honesty.
Stuchner's novel tells the fictional story of a young Jewish
boy in Copenhagen during the Nazi occupation of Denmark. David
Nathan and his friend Elsa are well aware of the war - food
is scarce, soldiers are everywhere, air raids are frequent and
frightening. But David is surprised to learn that his elder
sister Rachel works for the Resistance, and is even more surprised
to be asked to help by making an important delivery. While this
episode is important, it's only one aspect of the novel's exploration
of courage, resistance, and friendship. What I find most winning
about Honey Cake are its depictions of those small gestures
of daily life that offer another form of resistance: the quiet
refusal to bend, the insistence upon humanity and generosity.
Without preaching, Stuchner offers in the friendship between
David and Elsa (who is Christian), and between their families,
a depiction of tolerance and acceptance.
Stuchner's writing is clear and competent, but it rarely sings,
and her ending is somewhat abrupt. On the whole, however, this
is a well-constructed novel, with some finely developed images
and motifs; Stuchner's bird imagery is picked up beautifully
and subtly in the opening and closing illustrations.
Cynthia Nugent's pictures generally enliven the text, although
one or two are rather wooden. The first illustration is most
resonant for me: David reading Andersen's "The Nightingale,"
that tale by one of Copenhagen's most renowned storytellers
about the need to be free. -- Quill
& Quire, Saturday, March 29, 2008. Reviewed by Marnie Parsons
CM,
Volume XIV Number 7, November 23, 2007
David Nathan and his family are living in Copenhagen in 1943
during the German occupation. While they are still able to operate
their bakery, life is very different from before the German
officers came to the city. David's sister, Rachel is working
for the Resistance and one day David is asked by his father
to make a special delivery of chocolate eclairs. He learns later
that the eclairs contained a secret message and David realizes
that he too has been working for the resistance. When there
is news that the Germans are about to deport the Jews to concentration
camps, David and his family are helped to escape to Sweden by
their Christian friends, the Jensens.
This story of life in occupied Denmark during World War II is
told in a gentle manner. There is no description of violence
and the mistreatment of the Jewish people, yet there is an understanding
of the kind of fear these people were living under - German
soldiers constantly on the street corners, the soldiers coming
into the school rooms cautioning children that they must be
obedient to the German rule, air raid sirens and bombings in
the neighbourhood.
This book would be a good introduction for young readers to
how World War II affected some of the countries and the Jewish
people in Europe. It would be appropriate for students in the
elementary grades.
Thematic Links: World War II; Jews; Denmark - History Victoria
Pennell --by Joan Betty Stuchner, Resource Links, Vol. 13,
No. 1 (October 2007)
Honey Cake brings to life those fraught days in 1943
before the exodus of Jews from occupied Denmark. David Nathan
dreams of a model train for his next birthday, but he receives
a better gift when he and his family survive the flight to Sweden.
Using everyday details, Vancouver teacher-story-teller Joan
Betty Stuchner makes those long-past dark days seem scarily
modern. Cynthia Nugent's illustrations, as always, add complexity
and nuance. --By John Burns.
David Nathan's father is a baker, struggling to keep his business
alive in Nazi-occupied Copenhagen. It is early September 1943
and so far the Jewish population has not been touched, but,
by the end of the month, the Danish authorities learn that the
Nazis intend to deport all their Jewish neighbours to concentration
camps. In Honey Cake we see the incident through the eyes of
young David and his friends. A very special errand that David's
father sends him on, the safe delivery of a tray of chocolate
eclairs, has its own part to play in the conspiracy in which
the Danish people, rallying to the support of their Jewish neighbours,
help many of them escape to Sweden. Lively David, brave Elsa
and the warm-hearted and courageous Jensens bring alive, for
younger readers, the fidelity and courage of the Danes and their
almost miraculous rescue of so many. Cynthia Nugent's lively
energetic sketches suggest the apprehension of a street filled
with people as Nazi planes fly overhead, the emotion as the
king rides through the streets of Copenhagen to encourage his
people, or the family's bustle to prepare for their escape to
Sweden. This is a valuable and attractive introduction to a
difficult theme for young children, and David is a likeable
and believable young hero.
Quill
& Quire
How does one stand against tyranny? What's the true nature of
bravery? Big questions for an early-reader chapter book, but
Joan Betty Stuchner handles them with grace and honesty.
Stuchner's novel tells the fictional story of a young Jewish
boy in Copenhagen during the Nazi occupation of Denmark. David
Nathan and his friend Elsa are well aware of the war- food is
scarce, soldiers are everywhere, air raids are frequent and
frightening. But David is surprised to learn that his elder
sister Rachel works for the Resistance, and is even more surprised
to be asked to help by making an important delivery. While this
episode is important, it's only one aspect of the novel's exploration
of courage, resistance, and friendship. What I find most winning
about Honey Cake are its depictions of those small gestures
of daily life that offer another form of resistance: the quiet
refusal to bend, the insistence upon humanity and generosity.
Without preaching, Stuchner offers in the friendship between
David and Elsa (who is Christian), and between their families,
a depiction of tolerance and acceptance.
Stuchner's writing is clear and competent, but it rarely sings,
and her ending is somewhat abrupt. On the whole, however, this
is a well-constructed novel, with some finely developed images
and motifs; Stuchner's bird imagery is picked up beautifully
and subtly in the opening and closing illustrations. Cynthia
Nugent's pictures generally enliven the text, although one or
two are rather wooden. The first illustration is most resonant
for me: David reading Andersen's "The Nightingale,"
that tale by one of Copenhagen's most renowned storytellers
about the need to be free. -- Reviewed by Marnie Parsons
(from the July 2007 issue), Quill & Quire. |
|
