We are all familiar with the horrifying atrocities of the Holocaust, but lesser known is the second harrowing ordeal many Jewish families faced after the Hungarian Revolution. The inconceivable reality of returning to life after concentration camps to build a family and find yourselves fleeing as refugees 10 years later is the true story of author J.E. Laufer’s parents. Herself only 2 years old at the time, Laufer has used family memories and the account of the remarkable 16-year-old Christian girl who aided her family’s escape to write this fictionalized account of the events following this period of turbulence. 

The pages of history books come to life for young adult readers with characters that leap off the page and events that can sometimes parallel all-too-closely the modern resurgence of a refugee crisis, anti-semitism and political unrest.