Prisoner in Time Book

In 1942, tired of hiding from the Nazis in a Prague attic, a young Jewish man ventures out to an old cemetery, from which he travels back to the sixteenth-century and ...

School Library Journal

Gr 5-8-This blend of history, fantasy, and legend adds little to the growing body of Holocaust literature. The convoluted plot involves Jan, a Jewish boy from 1940s Prague who grew up on stories of Rabbi Loewe's Golem. After taking a forbidden walk from the house where he is hiding, he discovers an amulet that takes him back to Rabbi Loewe's time. Throughout the rest of the story he goes back and forth in time, ultimately ending up in the Terezin concentration camp, where, just when he plans to escape to the past to prevent his deportation to Auschwitz, the amulet is stolen. The mix of reality and time travel is not totally successful. Jan's life in Terezin lacks the horror of some other camps, which, combined with his magical ability to leave, makes his deportation especially bleak and unexpected. The historical information seems fairly accurate, and the inclusion of the famous poem "The Butterfly," written by an actual resident of Terezin, adds power and pathos to the book. However, Melnikoff's stilted prose and awkward plot ultimately prevent the book from rising to the top of a crowded genre. Religious libraries needing fiction about the Terezin camp may want to consider it, but others can pass.-Amy Lilien-Harper, The Ferguson Library, Stamford, CT Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.