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The Secret Buttons
The Secret Buttons by Ellen Shapiro
Take a fascinating journey - from Austria under Nazi occupation, to pre-WWII rural England, to Brooklyn, New York - with Anni and Rosie Blum, talented girls who come alive and come of age on the pages of The Secret Buttons.
Anni is twelve years old when she and her little sister Rosie travel alone to England from Nazi-occupied Vienna, Austria. Their father is in a concentration camp and their mother cannot get the right papers to enter another country. The borders are closed to Jews, so the girls depart to live with distant cousins wearing silk dresses their mother remade to disguise them as "Aryan" holiday travelers. They carry forged passports and Domestic Servant visas, the only way they can legally enter the United Kingdom. On the train, they knit and practice English sentences, not knowing what lies ahead. They arrive in a country that's deep in preparations for war. Because the girls speak German, the local children accuse them of being Nazi spies. And that's just the beginning of the challenges they face. Over the next three years of blackouts and bombings, they find their places in the world-and ultimately use their talents and creativity to help solve a very grown-up problem.
"This moving, timely story challenges gender stereotypes of timid, needy girls. The Secret Buttons will inspire our children - and all of us - to be brave and resilient in the face of evil." - Professor of Sociology, Public Policy, and Gender & Women's Studies
Take a fascinating journey - from Austria under Nazi occupation, to pre-WWII rural England, to Brooklyn, New York - with Anni and Rosie Blum, talented girls who come alive and come of age on the pages of The Secret Buttons.
Anni is twelve years old when she and her little sister Rosie travel alone to England from Nazi-occupied Vienna, Austria. Their father is in a concentration camp and their mother cannot get the right papers to enter another country. The borders are closed to Jews, so the girls depart to live with distant cousins wearing silk dresses their mother remade to disguise them as "Aryan" holiday travelers. They carry forged passports and Domestic Servant visas, the only way they can legally enter the United Kingdom. On the train, they knit and practice English sentences, not knowing what lies ahead. They arrive in a country that's deep in preparations for war. Because the girls speak German, the local children accuse them of being Nazi spies. And that's just the beginning of the challenges they face. Over the next three years of blackouts and bombings, they find their places in the world-and ultimately use their talents and creativity to help solve a very grown-up problem.
"This moving, timely story challenges gender stereotypes of timid, needy girls. The Secret Buttons will inspire our children - and all of us - to be brave and resilient in the face of evil." - Professor of Sociology, Public Policy, and Gender & Women's Studies
229 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 20, 2025
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