Books like this are so important and i am grateful to have these stories to share with my daughter, while being heartbroken they exist in our history.

PUBLISH DATE: March 31, 2026
I absolutely loved everything about this book. One of my favorite pieces about the book is that there are several real life photographs nestled along the illustrations as well. To me, this will help make the story real, it will allow kids to really get a sense that this is truly someone's story. I have nothing but positive things to say about this book!

5 stars!!

I received a complimentary digital ARC [Advanced Reader Copy] of this book via NetGalley. Thank you to The Collective Book Studio Publishing and the author, for the opportunity to read and review this title prior to publication. As always, the opinions expressed in this review are my own.

BOOK TITLE: A Time to Hide
AUTHOR: Marion Seidmann Fredman
PUBLISHER: The Collective Book Studio
ILLUSTRATOR: Elisa Kleven
FORMAT: e-book
PAGES: 96

Those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Sadly with the rampant antisemitism world wide, it seems there are many who have still not learned the lessons of the past. It is for this reason that we must continue to teach children and adults about not just the holocaust, but antisemitism which Jews have faced for centuries. While this book is geared towards children (middle school), I could see adults finding value in this book too.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this advance review copy in exchange for my honest review.

I'm a sucker for WW2 stories but this one is outstandingly great. I don't read the blurbs or the description. I just dive into the book. I thought it would be a fully illustrated book but this one is littered with real life photos of people, things etc., and it made the book more personal and real. Of course the artwork is excellent but the photos gets the cake here. The usual book we read with similar stories like these (like the popular Ann Frank diary) ends with a sad tone. However, this one has a happy ending (a long happy ending in fact). I'm invested with the book from the very start but when a baby was born to the main characters, that's the turning point. I was grab on my seat and my heart was tugged. And knowing that the baby is the one who wrote the book is truly the best thing (I wish they have hide it so it would be a surprise to the reader.) This book is highly recommended and I wish this one would get an award.

Thoughts:
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. This is such an interesting way to read a tale like Grete and Julius’. The story itself is an explanation of their survival and lives in hiding through the Nazi occupation while staying away from the brutal violence that they were hiding from which makes it a great way to start to introduce this topic to children as it is more child friendly but still honest about the experience. The mixed media element makes it such an interesting way to read it as there are not only photos accompanying the text but other more immersive things such as stamps and fabrics there too. I also loved the author’s note as finding out Marion is Grete and Julius’ daughter makes the telling of the story more personal to the author.

Favourite Quote:
“My dear. Do you know what's happening out there? Your people are being killed by the thousands, hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions. Men, women, and children. Babies. Bringing a new Jewish life into the world is the greatest act of resistance against what the Nazis are doing. It is also the only hope for your people."

This mixed media memoir set during WWII Germany, Holland and the US is a must-have for libraries, home/school/public, serving grades 4 through adult.

Marion Seidemann Fredman tells of her parents’ brief courtship, marriage and early married years in Bochum, Germany in the late 1930s as Hitler and the Nazi Party’s persecution of the Jews was amping up. She covers the desire of Julius and Grete to stay in their home but the necessity to leave for Holland where things seemed to be much safer. There, the couple eventually is given sanctuary in a hidden room upstairs in the home of a Dutch couple and when Grete becomes pregnant, a sympathetic doctor helps her deliver Marion. The house is raided by soldiers searching for Jews, but miraculously, the dog they were using to sniff out anyone hidden did not alert to their presence. When the war ends, Marion’s parents return to Velp, Holland where they are reunited with friends and family but learn of the deaths of others and the immigration to the United States for others. The trio is sponsored by some of that family and after a long wait, settles in St Louis, Missouri.

Fredman relays her family’s wartime experiences in small paragraphs positioned as sidebars atop backgrounds including fabric, maps, paintings and sketches that augment the story. Along with her text are photographs, newspaper clippings and additional paintings and sketches. The overall effect is that of a family scrapbook and is highly effective and provides additional details of not only her family’s experiences but events from the war.

Text is kept free of profanity and sexual content and while there is mention of Jews being put on trains and never seen again or sent to concentration camps, the horror of those cattle cars and extermination camps is not included. With its mixed media format, Fredman’s memoir has a place in all libraries and could be used with those from 4th grade to adulthood. A first choice book.