Like all the books of the past few years with the title bearing the structure "The xx of Auschwitz" (Violinist, Librarian, Rhinoceros Wrangler…) this has to be taken with a huge dose of salt. I didn't find it was nearly as heinous as that Morris woman, but there were certainly issues. What we have is a graphic novel based on a YA novel based on an interview or two, or whatever it was that gifted the original author the life story of the heroine here. She has to be a pretty, plucky lass, a bookworm in real life with a teacher mother and doting father, who ends up via the ghettoes in Auschwitz/Birkenau. But luckily, in Block BIIB – a faked-up window-dressing of a block to appease Red Cross inspectors.

There life is a touch less unjolly, as the kids have a room where they can gather, and survive a lot better than the children elsewhere, plays can be performed – and a rare few samizdat books can be hidden and doled out by our lass. But this is a very risky job, the area is often checked over by Mengele, and even the hunky saviour guy who set it up might not be who he seems…

This benefited to my mind from being for a tween audience – ten and up – as it meant it didn't exactly take long to read. The script being fairly snappy and short, and a judicious use of splash pages, mean this is stronger visually than with the words. For one, they certainly had all the potential to be incredibly naive – at one point the journey two victims of the Holocaust face is "their odyssey" – I guess because it involves a heck of a lot of fantasy and was started because of a beautiful woman, then.

Ill-chosen words aside, this reads well, not feeling the need to preach or to go too far down the educational side. It tells its story succinctly and quite well – certainly unpatronisingly. It remains a fact this genre will always raise eyebrows with me, but if it has to exist as a way to extend the interest in such things into the 2020s, riddled as here in the UK by leftist anti-Semitism, then it ought to be something like this.

This graphic novel looks like it could be an amazing book. I only read a sample of the first 17 pages. Which I was gutted about as it wasn't made obvious when I requested it for review. The sample was only added later on. From what I have read, it has great potential to be a 4 or 5 star read. The pictures were brilliant with a great story behind them. Just from the short sample, I could certainly feel the emotions coming through. As it is only a sample, I can only suggest that you give it a go or try a sample to see if it is for you. I don't think I have actually read the book that this graphic novel is based on. I can only post this review on my social media as I don't think it's right to post on retail sites unless you have read it all.

Well, I was Just Blown Away by How Good the Art for the Book was & So was the Writing. 5-Star Book Highly Recommended!
(Thanks to Net Galley for this Graphic Novel).

this is a 17 page sampler, but from what i read seems very interesting and well illustrated. i would definitely want to go on to read the whole thing in the future based off of what i read

This was a tantalising sample of the book and definitely makes me want more. This seems like a very accessible way to read the story of Dita Kraus, especially if the original book seems daunting to any readers.

“Her only fear…was that she wouldn’t have enough time to read everything she wanted to.” - when I read this I immediately knew I would enjoy this graphic novel! I relate so much to this quote and I just already loved Edita.

This was a different take on such a tragic historical event, it was informative and showed a different perspective. This graphic novel is such a work of art and I would love to read more. (It is only a 4 star because I want more)

4/5 🌟

I read the other reviews too late! As they mention, this is just a 14 page sampler. It looks promising and liked the artwork, but can't really judge the actual graphic novel just yet.

Disclaimer, I haven't read the novel and I wasn't familiar with holocaust tragedy (sorry)

This story is based on real history, from the holocaust survivor who became the main character in this book. I understand that this graphic novel is only potraying a small friction of the novel, let alone the real event. But oh God, horrible is an understatement. I can't imagine that atrocity really happened in the past, and the idea of the terror they had to endure saddened me.

But I think there's some part of this graphic novel where the scenes weren't directly connected so as a person who haven't read the novel, it confused me. Maybe I'll read the novel sometime later.

This is just a 17 page sampler. I did enjoy the portion that I read, but wish that more was available as it wasn’t specified on the NetGalley page. I wish that it was specified that this was just a sampler

**THIS IS JUST A 17 PAGE SAMPLER AND NOT THE FULL GRAPHIC NOVEL**

I wish I had seen the hashtag before requesting this galley. As the NetGalley page mentioned the page count as 144, I had assumed this to be the complete graphic novel. But it turned out to be just a sampler edition. I request the publishers to specify this clearly in the book details so that reviewers know what they are getting.

Based on the 17 pages I read, I would definitely love to read the complete graphic novel. The artwork seems to match the tone and style of the story, the characters seem interesting, and the narration is poetic as well as touching. However, the excerpt is too short for me to take a call on how the complete story would work out.

Rating it 4 stars for now as NetGalley reviews need a rating.