The Death & Life of Charlie St.Cloud - Ben Sherwood

            I always like books with a dog in and this one has two...... a loyal companion who loves baseball & a loopy retriever who likes to run on the beach.Tricking your mind this book makes you wonder if you are here or the afterlife as you make your way through the chapters - sometimes you are not sure!

A really quick read this book talks about issues of relationships, life, death, adventure, fun and choices people make. Charlie works in a graveyard with some interesting friends and a goose scaring program most kids would love to operate.

Charlie doesn't want to let go of the past, but learns that the past is pushing him away. Never boring, sometimes confusing, this is a book I'd recommend for children 10+.

Picked up to read for a reading group I enjoyed the conversations it inspired about spirits, the afterlife and grieving.

It helps us to remember that although some people may be gone, they will always live on in our hearts.
 

I look forward to watching the film which I intend to order on DVD!

Sarah's Kay - Tatiana De Rosnay *

 

 

Title - Sarah's Key

Author - Tatiana De Rozney

Copyright date-  2003

Price-  $13.95/$15.50 CAB (free to me!)

Page - 293

ISBN- 13:978-0-312-3708/10:0-312-378084-9

                         'Zakhor Al Tichkah - Remember never forget'

When you find an old key in a junk yard, stop a minute and think what it might open?

I've read many books on the atrocities of the Jews in the second world war and all of them leave a foot print and in my mind. The tragic reality of the events of the war should never be forgotten.

This book  has a distinctly different feel to other accounts. It presents two intertwined fictional stories of past and present, interspersed with historical facts about the second world war in France. This is a rich novel that once you pick it up you cannot put down.

It follows the life of young Sarah who was torn from her home in July 1942 in the middle of the night. Sarah is a Jew. Sarah doesn't know what this means, but she doesn't like wearing a yellow star on all her clothes. Her and her family are rounded up in a large sports hall Vel d'Hiv and kept there for days in inhumane conditions with no food or water. Thousands of children are herded up to meet the Nazi's demands - regardless of whether they are women, men or children. However it was not the Nazi's who took them from their beds at night, it was the French police who were following orders...

The tragedies of the sports hall are covered up for many years and the other story of Julia Jarmond sees the secrets of the past being uncovered. Battling peoples reluctance to talk about the tragedies of the past due to shame and fear she begins to uncover the heartbreakingly truth of the past, and of its link to her newly acquired flat with a hidden door in the wall...