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No Pretty Pictures: A Child of War
The beloved Caldecott Honor artist now recounts a tale of vastly different kind -- her own achingly potent memoir of a childhood of flight, imprisonment, and uncommon bravery in Nazi-occupied Poland. Anita Lobel was barely five when the war began and sixteen by the time she came to America from Sweden, where she had been sent to recover at the end of the war. This haunting book, illustrated with the author's archival photographs, is the remarkable account of her life during those years. Poised, forthright, and always ready to embrace life, Anita Lobel is the main character in the most personal story she will ever tell.Anita Lobel was barely five years old when World War II began and the Nazis burst into her home in Krakow, Poland, changing her life forever. She spent the days of her childhood in hiding with her brother--who was disguised as a girl--and their Catholic nanny in the countryside, the ghetto, and finally in a convent where the Nazis caught up with her. She was imprisoned in a succession of concentration camps until the end of the war. Sent by the Red Cross to recuperate in Sweden, she slowly blossomed as she discovered books and language and art. Since coming to the United States as a teenager, Anita Lobel has spent her life making pictures. She has never gone back. She has never looked back. Until now.
208 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1998
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2760 people want to read
About the author
Anita Lobel
81 books30 followersAnita Lobel is an illustrator of children's books. Her memoir that depicts her childhood of flight and imprisonment in Nazi-occupied Poland, ''No Pretty Pictures'' was a finalist for the National Book Award.
She has also received the Caldecott Honor Medal.
She has also received the Caldecott Honor Medal.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 164 reviews
February 12, 2009
This is a non-fiction book written by a Jewish woman who was five years old when WW II started. She went into hiding with her Christian nanny, who ironically does not like Jews, but wants to protect the author and her brother so she claims they are her children. After moving from place to place in hiding and having almost no contact with her mother or father, she is captured by the Nazi’s and taken to a concentration camp. During the last few months of the war she experiences all of the horrors of the concentration camps and the death march just prior to the concentration camps being liberated. After liberation she is taken to Sweden, reunited with her family, and recovers physically from her ordeal. The author has a very descriptive writing style and explains a lot of the emotional issues she faced because of her experience. She explains her dislike of her homeland and her Jewish ancestry because for so much of her childhood these caused the biggest problems in her life.
The Holocaust is of interest to teens because it is one of histories great injustices. Teens tend to feel a lot of things in their lives are unjust and so they identify with the survivors in a way. However, it also helps teens put their injustices in perspective. Many teens are beginning to want to change the world and do things differently than they have been done before. The Holocaust is a great example of a society’s need for change and abandonment of old ways of thinking. I think the entire world, not just teens, is in awe of the Holocaust because it hard to believe that things could go so wrong, on such a wide scale, for so long.
The most obvious Developmental Asset that was addressed in this book is Equality and Social Justice. However, there was also a lot of Caring and Other Adult Relationships going on as the nanny took care of these Jewish children who were not hers and the allied forces liberated the concentration camps. A different kind of Family Support is illustrated when the author and her brother are saved from execution by extended family and how the families tried to take care of each other even in the concentration camps and hiding.
Because this is non-fiction, the author is very believable. Her writing style is such that she really paints a picture of her life during those years and that is very moving also. I think the attitude of the nanny also adds to the voice of the story because she dislikes “dirty Jews”, but is clearly against the governments’ treatment of them. She spends her life saving the lives of the author and her brother, despite the fact that she is quit prejudice herself.
I would promote this book to teens who are interested in social injustice and overcoming impossible odds. The author has her entire childhood robed of her by a circumstance clearly beyond her control. She describes herself as a person born in the wrong time and place. I think some teens feel that way and it would be a good hook for them. It is also a good survivor story for teens who like that because she is one of the few children who made it through that time and place in the world and lived to tell about it. Just asking teens if they think you could be a 5 year old Jew in Poland at the beginning of WW II and live to tell about it would interest some teens.
5Q, 2P, S
The Holocaust is of interest to teens because it is one of histories great injustices. Teens tend to feel a lot of things in their lives are unjust and so they identify with the survivors in a way. However, it also helps teens put their injustices in perspective. Many teens are beginning to want to change the world and do things differently than they have been done before. The Holocaust is a great example of a society’s need for change and abandonment of old ways of thinking. I think the entire world, not just teens, is in awe of the Holocaust because it hard to believe that things could go so wrong, on such a wide scale, for so long.
The most obvious Developmental Asset that was addressed in this book is Equality and Social Justice. However, there was also a lot of Caring and Other Adult Relationships going on as the nanny took care of these Jewish children who were not hers and the allied forces liberated the concentration camps. A different kind of Family Support is illustrated when the author and her brother are saved from execution by extended family and how the families tried to take care of each other even in the concentration camps and hiding.
Because this is non-fiction, the author is very believable. Her writing style is such that she really paints a picture of her life during those years and that is very moving also. I think the attitude of the nanny also adds to the voice of the story because she dislikes “dirty Jews”, but is clearly against the governments’ treatment of them. She spends her life saving the lives of the author and her brother, despite the fact that she is quit prejudice herself.
I would promote this book to teens who are interested in social injustice and overcoming impossible odds. The author has her entire childhood robed of her by a circumstance clearly beyond her control. She describes herself as a person born in the wrong time and place. I think some teens feel that way and it would be a good hook for them. It is also a good survivor story for teens who like that because she is one of the few children who made it through that time and place in the world and lived to tell about it. Just asking teens if they think you could be a 5 year old Jew in Poland at the beginning of WW II and live to tell about it would interest some teens.
5Q, 2P, S
March 1, 2016
No Pretty Pictures: a child of war –Anita Lobel
3 stars
Anita Lobel is an award winning illustrator of children’s books. I love her artwork. I have read On Market Street and The Rose in My Garden to many groups of children. Her pictures are vibrant and full of life. Although the title prepared me, I was deeply affected by her stark, unadorned memoir of her childhood. She was barely five years old, essentially the age of children that I teach, when the Germans invaded Poland. She does not relate her story in a child’s voice, but she tells it from the child’s perspective without adding adult interpretations or explanations until the epilog of the book. From my adult perspective this made the story even more horrifying. There is the helpless child who does not, cannot, understand what is happening to her.
The miraculous thing is that Anita and her young brother, who was frequently disguised as a girl, did survive the concentration camp. They were liberated and sent as refugees to Sweden. In Sweden they recovered from tuberculosis in a sanatorium until they were reunited with both of their surviving parents.
This memoir was intended for a young adult audience so the language is simple. I found myself wanting more from the narrator as she described her own reactions to being reunited with her family. She frequently refers to her own confusion about religious issues, but she never speaks to how she personally resolved these questions. There is an emotional distance in the telling of this story that is not a result of the reduced vocabulary. I think that Anita Lobel’s emotional expression is in her artwork, not in her prose.
3 stars
Anita Lobel is an award winning illustrator of children’s books. I love her artwork. I have read On Market Street and The Rose in My Garden to many groups of children. Her pictures are vibrant and full of life. Although the title prepared me, I was deeply affected by her stark, unadorned memoir of her childhood. She was barely five years old, essentially the age of children that I teach, when the Germans invaded Poland. She does not relate her story in a child’s voice, but she tells it from the child’s perspective without adding adult interpretations or explanations until the epilog of the book. From my adult perspective this made the story even more horrifying. There is the helpless child who does not, cannot, understand what is happening to her.
The miraculous thing is that Anita and her young brother, who was frequently disguised as a girl, did survive the concentration camp. They were liberated and sent as refugees to Sweden. In Sweden they recovered from tuberculosis in a sanatorium until they were reunited with both of their surviving parents.
This memoir was intended for a young adult audience so the language is simple. I found myself wanting more from the narrator as she described her own reactions to being reunited with her family. She frequently refers to her own confusion about religious issues, but she never speaks to how she personally resolved these questions. There is an emotional distance in the telling of this story that is not a result of the reduced vocabulary. I think that Anita Lobel’s emotional expression is in her artwork, not in her prose.
January 7, 2023
This is by no means an easy read, especially in the middle. Survivor’s stories are so powerful and must be heard. She recalls her thoughts as a ten year old when being marched to Auschwitz as being, basically: “This is the result of the failures of the adults around me”.
The reason I gave four stars is due to the tone of recollections of being Jewish - the trauma she endured made her resent Judaism deeply. This makes sense, but is difficult to process as a reader today. It also contains several graphic descriptions of murder, abuse, and life in the concentration camps. Per the title, it’s not a children’s book.
Her descriptions of the nuns and nurses and who helped her recover and the teachers who provided her with books and art make it a sobering warning to strive to be the kind of adult who prevents crises and whenever possible to bring healing in their aftermath.
I’ll certainly never be able to read her lovely children’s books without tearing up now.
The reason I gave four stars is due to the tone of recollections of being Jewish - the trauma she endured made her resent Judaism deeply. This makes sense, but is difficult to process as a reader today. It also contains several graphic descriptions of murder, abuse, and life in the concentration camps. Per the title, it’s not a children’s book.
Her descriptions of the nuns and nurses and who helped her recover and the teachers who provided her with books and art make it a sobering warning to strive to be the kind of adult who prevents crises and whenever possible to bring healing in their aftermath.
I’ll certainly never be able to read her lovely children’s books without tearing up now.
December 26, 2021
All governments are evil. ALL governments. Some, however, are worse than others.
Anita Lobel writes about one of the worst.
When she was about 7 years of age, she was on a list to be shot. At 7 years of age, she was considered a threat, she and her 5-year-old brother. And of course the rest of her family.
Their crime? Being Jewish.
Worse. Polish Jewish.
Poland had already been conquered by the armies of Germany and -- and too many people don't know or forget this -- the imperialistic Soviet Union, Germany's ally.
Anita's father fled the scene when the Germans, led by their National Socialist party, came stomping in, killing and stealing -- some stole the rug off Anita's family's floor! -- and began rounding up the ones they wanted for "deportation."
For whatever reason, he apparently didn't even try to save his family. It's never fully explained.
Luckily for Anita and her brother -- who began dressing as a girl because they thought girls would be safer from the Nazis, not being surgically marked as boys and so were so less obviously Jewish -- and, unknown to them until later, a relative had won the favor of the vicious conquerors because the man of the family was an engineer, and the Nazis could use his services.
What Anita and the other Jews suffered might by now be generally known, but perhaps not in detail.
It's worse than, perhaps, anyone not there can imagine.
Just think: Her story was multiplied millions of times!
And millions of those stories ended in death.
At least 6 million Jews were casually and routinely murdered. Just herded into gas chambers and murdered.
Much like relatively sane people would do to rats or cockroaches, maybe, but never, NEVER, think of doing to fellow human beings.
Anita never seems to realize that only governments are capable of such atrocities. Or at least she never bluntly makes any statement to that effect.
In fact, Jews across the world, in their surviving millions, never seem to recognize what should be an obvious fact: Governments are evil; their very basis is evil; their most common acts are evil; they generally see us, individual human beings, merely as resources, here to be used, exploited, controlled and organized, to be robbed, in the name of taxes, or to be cannon fodder when our respective governments want to attack another band of potential serfs.
What happened to Anita can happen to all of us, Jewish, half-Jewish (as am I), or totally Gentile.
Conquerors don't always need a plausible excuse.
And it will happen. It will. IF we let it.
Reading "No Pretty Pictures" might help arm us against such a potential, such a possibility.
Anita pronounced herself grateful to have become a United States citizen, and we are lucky to have gotten her. But, though she doesn't say it in this book, if these United States also fall to the power-mad statists and collectivists, other Anitas, you and I, won't have any place to which to escape.
Anita Lobel writes about one of the worst.
When she was about 7 years of age, she was on a list to be shot. At 7 years of age, she was considered a threat, she and her 5-year-old brother. And of course the rest of her family.
Their crime? Being Jewish.
Worse. Polish Jewish.
Poland had already been conquered by the armies of Germany and -- and too many people don't know or forget this -- the imperialistic Soviet Union, Germany's ally.
Anita's father fled the scene when the Germans, led by their National Socialist party, came stomping in, killing and stealing -- some stole the rug off Anita's family's floor! -- and began rounding up the ones they wanted for "deportation."
For whatever reason, he apparently didn't even try to save his family. It's never fully explained.
Luckily for Anita and her brother -- who began dressing as a girl because they thought girls would be safer from the Nazis, not being surgically marked as boys and so were so less obviously Jewish -- and, unknown to them until later, a relative had won the favor of the vicious conquerors because the man of the family was an engineer, and the Nazis could use his services.
What Anita and the other Jews suffered might by now be generally known, but perhaps not in detail.
It's worse than, perhaps, anyone not there can imagine.
Just think: Her story was multiplied millions of times!
And millions of those stories ended in death.
At least 6 million Jews were casually and routinely murdered. Just herded into gas chambers and murdered.
Much like relatively sane people would do to rats or cockroaches, maybe, but never, NEVER, think of doing to fellow human beings.
Anita never seems to realize that only governments are capable of such atrocities. Or at least she never bluntly makes any statement to that effect.
In fact, Jews across the world, in their surviving millions, never seem to recognize what should be an obvious fact: Governments are evil; their very basis is evil; their most common acts are evil; they generally see us, individual human beings, merely as resources, here to be used, exploited, controlled and organized, to be robbed, in the name of taxes, or to be cannon fodder when our respective governments want to attack another band of potential serfs.
What happened to Anita can happen to all of us, Jewish, half-Jewish (as am I), or totally Gentile.
Conquerors don't always need a plausible excuse.
And it will happen. It will. IF we let it.
Reading "No Pretty Pictures" might help arm us against such a potential, such a possibility.
Anita pronounced herself grateful to have become a United States citizen, and we are lucky to have gotten her. But, though she doesn't say it in this book, if these United States also fall to the power-mad statists and collectivists, other Anitas, you and I, won't have any place to which to escape.
March 19, 2020
This young adult WWII memoir opens in Krakow, Poland, in 1939. The author is a young child with distant parents and a much-beloved nanny. A nanny who is Catholic and does not like/trust Jewish people, even though she works for a Jewish family and loves their children.
We follow the author through the war, from hiding out in the country (Lapanow and her nanny's village) without her parents, her little blond brother dressing as a girl so no one would ever think to check for a circumcision. Nanny pretending to be their mother and taking them to church. Into and out of the Krakow ghetto (with her mother). Little Anita feels uncomfortable with her olive skin and dark hair. To a convent where ill children can stay. Nanny takes them to mass there and sometimes they meet up with their mother in town.
Until one Christmas morning, when Nazis come and round up any Jews who were in the convent. Young Anita had not been aware that any other Jews were hiding there. After some time in a prison, the children are taken to Plaszow concentration camp. It's been five and a half years of hiding. Anita is ten years old. In that camp, she finds an aunt, uncle, and cousin. When that camp is to be liquidated (January 1945), they are marched through the night to (an already empty) Auschwitz. In the morning, they are put on a cattle car and taken to Ravensbruck. She and her brother are now alone. They are ten and eight. Here they stay, extremely ill, until they are rescued in April.
They are taken to a tuberculosis sanatorium in Sweden where they recover for almost two years. Here they do not go to Catholic mass, but are taken care of by Protestant sisters. Life is wonderful; they are clean and fed and happy. Then, Anita goes by herself to a camp/shelter for Polish refugee children. Finally she makes contact with her parents who get visas for Sweden and live in Stockholm with their daughter (and eventually, their son as well). Anita is twelve and hasn't seen her father since she was five. She misses nanny, not her parents. She goes to school for the first time in her life, and when she is sixteen, the family moves to the United States.
Anita's writing style is straight forward, almost blunt. She does a good job conveying the shame and rejection of her Jewish identity. The suspicion of all adults that she develops. What it's like to not have your basic needs met. To be children shuffled along, surviving, making decisions with Nazis watching.
Not a read to enjoy, but one that sticks with you. At the time of this review, Anita is still living, at 85 years old.
We follow the author through the war, from hiding out in the country (Lapanow and her nanny's village) without her parents, her little blond brother dressing as a girl so no one would ever think to check for a circumcision. Nanny pretending to be their mother and taking them to church. Into and out of the Krakow ghetto (with her mother). Little Anita feels uncomfortable with her olive skin and dark hair. To a convent where ill children can stay. Nanny takes them to mass there and sometimes they meet up with their mother in town.
Until one Christmas morning, when Nazis come and round up any Jews who were in the convent. Young Anita had not been aware that any other Jews were hiding there. After some time in a prison, the children are taken to Plaszow concentration camp. It's been five and a half years of hiding. Anita is ten years old. In that camp, she finds an aunt, uncle, and cousin. When that camp is to be liquidated (January 1945), they are marched through the night to (an already empty) Auschwitz. In the morning, they are put on a cattle car and taken to Ravensbruck. She and her brother are now alone. They are ten and eight. Here they stay, extremely ill, until they are rescued in April.
They are taken to a tuberculosis sanatorium in Sweden where they recover for almost two years. Here they do not go to Catholic mass, but are taken care of by Protestant sisters. Life is wonderful; they are clean and fed and happy. Then, Anita goes by herself to a camp/shelter for Polish refugee children. Finally she makes contact with her parents who get visas for Sweden and live in Stockholm with their daughter (and eventually, their son as well). Anita is twelve and hasn't seen her father since she was five. She misses nanny, not her parents. She goes to school for the first time in her life, and when she is sixteen, the family moves to the United States.
Anita's writing style is straight forward, almost blunt. She does a good job conveying the shame and rejection of her Jewish identity. The suspicion of all adults that she develops. What it's like to not have your basic needs met. To be children shuffled along, surviving, making decisions with Nazis watching.
Not a read to enjoy, but one that sticks with you. At the time of this review, Anita is still living, at 85 years old.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 14, 2023
I think stories like this are so important!! This one was unique in that the author was so young at the time of WWII, so her story is told from the honest, innocent, near-sighted perspective of a child thrown into war.
October 17, 2023
Such an easy quick read But absolutely amazing true story!
July 12, 2025
A heartbreaking survival story that is very different in the way that the author and her brother survive. It also goes into what happened after the war. A perspective I haven’t read before that also examines her reactions and feelings of her childhood experience as well as the events.
July 24, 2021
A moving yet absolutely heartbreaking but hopeful story. You will feel a range of emotions as you read along. A true story about a young girl and her Jewish family’s struggle through WW2 and Nazi-occupied Germany.
It’s been many years since I initially read the book for the first time but it’s a story that has stuck with me. I cannot recommend this book enough.
It’s been many years since I initially read the book for the first time but it’s a story that has stuck with me. I cannot recommend this book enough.
February 25, 2019
No Pretty Pictures: A Child Of War, written by Anita Lobel. No Pretty Pictures is a story about a Jewish refugee during World War two. Anita was just turning five when the Nazi’s first burst through her door. The story starts with Anita, (Hanusia) growing up in the city Kraków, Poland with her brother. Everything was fine, she was happy with her brother, mom, dad and nanny (Niania), until the Nazi’s invaded Kraków. It was so troubling for the family, that they decided that Anita’s brother would be safer as a girl. They dressed him in fine dresses, and he grew his hair out until it was around shoulder length. The family was eventually forced to move, after the Nazi’s had stripped all of their belongings from them. When the Nazi’s came to their house, they took all their silverware, rugs, and jewelry. They also took Anita’s dad (Tatuś). It was a devastating time, Niania took Anita and her ‘brother’ to a new home in a town called Łapanów. The Nazi’s came after them more and more, and separated them from Niania. Now without the help of a trusted adult, they were forced to keep moving, and to keep surviving. Anita Lobel helps the readers understand her true emotions and struggles through imagery all throughout the book. For example “The day was hot. Through the stinking contents of the chamber pot drying on my skin, I could smell the fresh bread in Niania’s bundle. I was hungry. Only a few drops of the chamber pot shower seemed to have dripped on Niania. The food was safe. We came to a grove of trees and some shade. There was a brook and clear clean water. Alone, we washed ourselves. Niania rinsed our clothes and laid everything out to dry in the sun. She checked the bundle of linen. It was clean.” Anita Lobel portrays the life of someone who was constantly on the run, who couldn’t trust anyone. That’s what her definition of a refugee is. World War two was horrible to so many people, that’s why Anita has no pretty pictures from that time, all it brings back is scarring memories.
January 20, 2020
A few marginal reviews come up at the top, and I find them baffling. This is a very well-written account of a young Polish girl's life under the Nazi regime; she describes events and her reactions to them in impressive detail, and either she's a really terrific writer, or she has an excellent editor, or (probably) both.
Some reviewers seemed to want more melodrama, or want an account from the perspective of Lobel as an adult, analyzing, reflecting, digging deep for emotional responses, but this Jewish child's experience was a series of frightening and baffling experiences, with periods of being protected, and always feeling deeply cared about by her nanny, and the way it's presented is just as a child would have experienced it . . . a series of events to be gotten through with the attendant fear, shame, excitement, confusion, and a strong desire to be invisible to the Nazis or informers. It's a wonder that a child who wanted so much to be invisible to her persecutors was able to reconstruct the events; attempted invisibility would seem to spill over into feelings and memories. A horrified, terrified person would have a hard time being invisible.
At any rate, I thought this book was exceptional; I've read many Holocaust accounts and this one might be my favorite.
Some reviewers seemed to want more melodrama, or want an account from the perspective of Lobel as an adult, analyzing, reflecting, digging deep for emotional responses, but this Jewish child's experience was a series of frightening and baffling experiences, with periods of being protected, and always feeling deeply cared about by her nanny, and the way it's presented is just as a child would have experienced it . . . a series of events to be gotten through with the attendant fear, shame, excitement, confusion, and a strong desire to be invisible to the Nazis or informers. It's a wonder that a child who wanted so much to be invisible to her persecutors was able to reconstruct the events; attempted invisibility would seem to spill over into feelings and memories. A horrified, terrified person would have a hard time being invisible.
At any rate, I thought this book was exceptional; I've read many Holocaust accounts and this one might be my favorite.
November 2, 2014
Initially I debated between a 3 and a 4 for this book but ultimately decided on the latter because I felt the writing deserved it. I found myself struggling to connect with the main character and her desire to rid herself of anything family-related or identifiably Jewish. I wanted her to feel pride instead of shame or disgust. Her lack of any kind of emotional connection to her parents in particular bothered me. However, upon reflecting on this, I realized her reaction to herself and family was just one more example of how the Nazis continued to victimize her long after the war had ended. The crumbling of the family unit after the war was not an uncommon thing for families trying to reconnect after so much time apart. In a way I think it also exposed some of my own fears. What if I was taken away from my child while she was still young? Would she loose the connection we have and the memories of love? Overall, it is very well written and provides an interesting perspective.
January 26, 2015
This is a story written by a famous children's illustrator about her life as a Polish Jewish child during WWII. Five when the war started, she spent many years of the war hidden by her nanny and then the last couple in a concentration camp. After their liberation she lived Sweden for almost 10 years before her family emigrated to the United States.
I think I was surprised by the dispassionate voice of the book. One of the only parts of the book that was particularly passionate was the end when the family moved to the United States and she wished she could stay in Sweden. Another time when I felt emotion was when she described the shame she felt (for a long time after the war) about being Jewish.
I was amazed by the heroism of the nanny in this story. These children weren't her own, and yet she went to great lengths to care for them for years, even though it must have put her in danger.
I think I was surprised by the dispassionate voice of the book. One of the only parts of the book that was particularly passionate was the end when the family moved to the United States and she wished she could stay in Sweden. Another time when I felt emotion was when she described the shame she felt (for a long time after the war) about being Jewish.
I was amazed by the heroism of the nanny in this story. These children weren't her own, and yet she went to great lengths to care for them for years, even though it must have put her in danger.
February 13, 2022
It was difficult to tell how much time had passed during events of the book. For being such key figures, it was very strange that we never learn her brother or Niania’s real names. The brother’s personality is never really shown much. Anita’s experiences with different religions (her family’s Judaism, Niania’s Catholics, and Swedish Lutheranism) were major parts of experiences during the war and after. It would have been nice to know how she came to terms with the three faiths.
I think that she is more of an illustrator than an author. Anita Lobel had collaborated with many authors over the years; it may have been beneficial to collaborate with one to do more justice to her story.
I think that she is more of an illustrator than an author. Anita Lobel had collaborated with many authors over the years; it may have been beneficial to collaborate with one to do more justice to her story.
July 11, 2014
What an experience Anita Lobel had. She protected her younger brother, managed to survive a concentration camp and ended up in Sweden. Miraculously, the two were reunited with her parents after their release, in Sweden. Lobel had lived an upper middle class life in Krakow; had a colorful live-in and Catholic nanny who didn't like Jews or Jewish customs, but was loyal and protective of "her children". Plainly written but hugely readable make this a haunting and readable reading experience for older children and adults.
July 6, 2016
Anita Lobel is known as a Children's book illustrator not an author and I think it shows. The book is good but a bit drawn out and not very captivating. I think it would have been better if she had shortened it by quite a bit. It would have been hard since a lot happened to her in a short 10years of her life.
June 20, 2017
A true story of perseverance, courage and honesty by a woman who, as a Jewish young child, faced persecution and imprisonment in Nazi -occupied Poland. Older children should read this, too. Great family discussions could arise.
November 9, 2022
This is a story about young Anita Lobel, award winning children's book illustrator, Caldecott Medal Winner. This isn't a story that she normally writes, no. This story is a darker story about her childhood, and the horrors she faced from the ages of 5-16. At a young age Lobel was in Nazi occupied Poland. She was 5 when the Nazi's first started affecting her family (or that she realized). At about 5 years old the Nazi's came into their house and started taking some of the families belongings straight out of their house. Family members, one by one, slowly started disappearing. She didn't know what was happening to them she just knew that they were not there. Her father being one of the members that disappeared. This left her mother and her nanny in charge to figure out what to do. They decided that they needed to get Anita and her little brother out and safe. Anita's mother stayed in the city because she had fake papers that allowed her to walk around unnoticed. The two children and the nanny went to the countryside, begged for food, and traded some of the things from their old house to survive. Anita's little brother was disguised as a girl, because they thought that being a girl would make it easier for them and they wouldn't be treated as harshly. Anita's nanny soon found a convent where the three of them stayed for quite some time in hiding. When the convent was found housing Jews, Anita, her little brother were captured. Anita and her brother were sent to a prison to await transport to a concentration camp. The two had no idea what happened to their nanny. When she was just 7 years old Anita and her brother were on a list of people to be shot. While there, their Uncle, who was an engineer and was very useful to the Nazi's, told them that if the children weren't allowed to live then he would never work for them again. Because of him she lived and was able to go on to illustrate many children's books and inspire a lot of people now a days. From there they were sent to Auschwitz, but because Russia was invading soon the children were sent to one more concentration camp that was a women's only camp. In 1945 they were saved by soldiers. Anita didn't know which soldiers they were, but they saved them. Her and her brother were taken from the base to Sweden where they were given a bed, food, showers, and healthcare. A lot of the people that were liberated were very sick and still on the brink of death, which was horrible, but then there was a massive outbreak of TB. Her and her brother were sent to a sanatorium where they stayed for almost a year to recover from TB. She received a letter from her mother and she left the sanatorium, but sadly she had to leave her brother behind so he could continue with his recovery. She had to stay in a refugee camp until her parents could come and pick her up. They lived in a boarding house together and her parents got jobs and bought her some new clothes and she finally for the first time got to go to school. Around that time she found out that her nanny had terminal brain cancer and passed away. At the age of 16 her parents decided to move to New York City, and the rest they say is history.
I really enjoyed the way this book was written. It was written geared toward children. You know, smaller words so that younger students can grasp the concepts. This book was written from a child's perspective. It was like being in the mind of a 5, 10, 16 year old girl. You felt as though you were living through her. What happened to Jewish people during the Holocaust was absolutely disgusting, and it should have never happened, but the way this story made me feel was even worse than before. Reading her experiences, and knowing that this same story could have happened hundreds and even hundreds of thousands of times makes me want to cry for these children. They had no idea what was happening to them and why.
I really enjoyed the way this book was written. It was written geared toward children. You know, smaller words so that younger students can grasp the concepts. This book was written from a child's perspective. It was like being in the mind of a 5, 10, 16 year old girl. You felt as though you were living through her. What happened to Jewish people during the Holocaust was absolutely disgusting, and it should have never happened, but the way this story made me feel was even worse than before. Reading her experiences, and knowing that this same story could have happened hundreds and even hundreds of thousands of times makes me want to cry for these children. They had no idea what was happening to them and why.
February 14, 2018
The book No Pretty Picture: A Child of War is an example of a prodigious read. Anita Lobel’s story is unbelievable. Anita Lobel is a long-suffering Jewish survivor who managed to get through all the difficult moments in her life during WWII. This book is based on the horrible experiences that Jews and non-jews went through for approximately 6 years, starting from 1939 to 1945. This book will give you a different perspective on how you thought the Concentration Camps were really like.
Anita Lobel was only a 5-year-old Jewish little girl when Germany invaded her country in 1939.When the German army invaded Poland, Anita went into hiding with her younger brother and her Christian nanny, Niania, who did not like Jews. Yet she felt she had an obligation to care and protect for Anita and her younger brother. Having little connection with her mother and her father being away caused them to struggle financially since her nanny did not have much to offer them. Things took an unexpected turn when Anita and her younger brother were caught and taken by the Nazi’s to a concentration camp. The things they went through in those camps were just horrific, and it was just the beginning.
This book is many things all at once. It’s amusing, understandable, terrifying and a moving story. Anita Lobel did an outstanding job going in depth with the characters and being detailed with every scene that occurred in the book. It somehow can give you a sense of the setting. It was beyond amazing getting to understand how WWII was through the eyes of an adolescent. A child whose adolescence was taken away from her. This book just like all the other books about The Holocaust taught me many more things that I did not know about the Concentration Camps and WWII in general.
Anita Lobel was only a 5-year-old Jewish little girl when Germany invaded her country in 1939.When the German army invaded Poland, Anita went into hiding with her younger brother and her Christian nanny, Niania, who did not like Jews. Yet she felt she had an obligation to care and protect for Anita and her younger brother. Having little connection with her mother and her father being away caused them to struggle financially since her nanny did not have much to offer them. Things took an unexpected turn when Anita and her younger brother were caught and taken by the Nazi’s to a concentration camp. The things they went through in those camps were just horrific, and it was just the beginning.
This book is many things all at once. It’s amusing, understandable, terrifying and a moving story. Anita Lobel did an outstanding job going in depth with the characters and being detailed with every scene that occurred in the book. It somehow can give you a sense of the setting. It was beyond amazing getting to understand how WWII was through the eyes of an adolescent. A child whose adolescence was taken away from her. This book just like all the other books about The Holocaust taught me many more things that I did not know about the Concentration Camps and WWII in general.
February 15, 2019
In the story, ¨No pretty pictures¨ , Anita Lobel takes the reader on a journey back into time when she was a 5 year old little girl in Kraków poland during the beginning of world war II. She lived in a apartment with her family and nanny, everything was very pretty and happy during that time. She had friends, family and her nanny. But, one thing she did not expect happened to her happened, the Naziś invaded poland, her brother, nanny and her all had to travel far away from their home to try and get as much space between them and the invaders for the fear of being captured because Anita and her family were Jews. Being only 5 she had to leave the things that made a little girl joyful like toys, much food, and a cozy house to make things seem protected. They had to dogde violent Nazi’s, shots of war and being caught or killed because of being a jew. Her and her brother have to trudge countless miles to save themselves, but, how could they ever escape the shots and screams of the ever growing Nazi’s and war? Could they ever stop running and be back to that cozy house that they all desire? Would they ever escape war? Anita memorises us with this heart wrenching tale of her seeing death right at the end of her finger tips. She walks us through the thoughts of what it might be like to live in that time frame. Anita pulls up a story in her life that depends the perception of persistence is what you need when trying to escape fear. She and her brother had that persistence to keep going when everything has been taken away from them and even adapted to their surroundings to have that persistence to survive. This book is for people of all ages that like, history, realistic fiction and others that like adventure.
March 26, 2019
No Pretty Pictures by Anita Lobel is a true story of Lobel’s experience during World War II. It is a story of a young girl and her brother during the war. It included situations they were put through and how they dealt with everything the Nazis threw at them. Although the first few chapters are a bit slow, It offers a very emotional reading experience.
The author Anita Lobel was born in Krakow, Poland in 1934 to Leon and Sofia Kempler. She went to Pratt Institute and Brooklyn Museum Art school. After becoming a freelance textile designer she became a writer and illustrator of children’s books. Her book No Pretty Pictures is a National Book Award Finalist Book.
The book starts out by telling how their life was right up to the beginning of the war. They were living in Krakow, Poland, before the Nazis invaded. Anita and her brother soon went into hiding with their nanny. After that they are discovered by Nazis and are forced to endure life in different concentration camps and prisons.
The book is a survivor story leaving out some of the gruesome detail making it appropriate for at least junior high kids. If anyone wanted to read this book however, it would be suitable for most audiences.
No Pretty Pictures deserves a four out of five stars. Because readers will enjoy reading what all went on during her childhood. She told it as a story once they were discovered in hiding. She creates strong imagery of how everything went on during her times in Nazi prison camps.
The author Anita Lobel was born in Krakow, Poland in 1934 to Leon and Sofia Kempler. She went to Pratt Institute and Brooklyn Museum Art school. After becoming a freelance textile designer she became a writer and illustrator of children’s books. Her book No Pretty Pictures is a National Book Award Finalist Book.
The book starts out by telling how their life was right up to the beginning of the war. They were living in Krakow, Poland, before the Nazis invaded. Anita and her brother soon went into hiding with their nanny. After that they are discovered by Nazis and are forced to endure life in different concentration camps and prisons.
The book is a survivor story leaving out some of the gruesome detail making it appropriate for at least junior high kids. If anyone wanted to read this book however, it would be suitable for most audiences.
No Pretty Pictures deserves a four out of five stars. Because readers will enjoy reading what all went on during her childhood. She told it as a story once they were discovered in hiding. She creates strong imagery of how everything went on during her times in Nazi prison camps.
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November 18, 2019This book is about Nazi Germany and it is a memoir about Anita Lobel and her experience during this time. She was five years old when WWII began and was sixteen by the time she got to America. She starts her story by telling about when the Nazi soldiers broke into her home in Sweden. She and her brother went into hiding with their catholic nanny. Her brother had to even dress up as a little girl and they hid all over from the ghetto to a convent. The soldiers eventually caught up with her and she spent the remained of her time during the war in a concentration camp. When to war ended she was sent away by the Red Cross and she spent time getting stronger physically and mentally by drawing pictures and writing about what she had experienced. This is a 1999 honor book for the Orbis Pictus award. This is a really good book to read about history because it takes the life of someone who was their and lays out their experience in detail. This is a fun way for young adults to learn about history because they are not just sitting their reading a text book about this moment in history. Some young adults that will really like this book are the ones who grew up reading the Dear America books.
February 13, 2020
No Pretty Pictures by Anita Lobel follows herself as a young girl through times during World War ll. She grew up Jewish in Poland with her parents, her brother, and her Niania (Nanny). Then one day Nazis storm through their house, take all their things, and kidnap the father to go to war as a soldier. Anita is heartbroken. Niania and mother decide to take the kids somewhere safer which is how they end up in Sweden. She is now ten years old. They are found by the Nazis in the hospital they end up in. The kids get taken and put into camps while the Niania is left in Sweden because she is Christian. They were scared for what was to come. The siblings have to survive in terrible conditions alone with no one but each other, until the biggest miracle of their life happens. Lobel helps readers understand that perseverance and prayer can make positive changes in your life through the kids' prayer every night. The kids pray that one day they will be set free. Years later they get put through the unimaginable. Lobel introduces hope and strength in relationshi[p during times of harsh war. They cared for each other and stuck together even when threatened for death. The bond they had grew stronger as more pressure and hate was set.
November 16, 2021
I have read quite a bit about the Holocaust: children's books, young adult and adult books and so often these are books that are hard to forget. No Pretty Pictures is one of those books. A friend passed this book along as he knew I would like it and I was familiar with Anita Lobel but knew nothing about her life. Only 5 years old when the Nazis marched into Poland, Anita writes this memoir without the adult knowledge that so much of Holocaust literature is based on. She was 'lucky' because she survived and even more astonishing so did her brother and parents even tho she was separated from her parents for most of the war. This book is dedicated to her brother and her nanny, Niania who seemed to be the most important adult in her life: she certainly was the adult who managed to hide her and her brother for so long. Her nanny was a Polish Roman Catholic and it was interesting that, like many Poles, Niania was anti-Jewish but she loved Anita and her brother and that came first. Although there is an epilogue with some facts about Anita Lobel's later life this book did leave me longing to know more about her and her family's life after the War.
June 13, 2017
Anita Lobel was raised in one of the toughest places and times to be raised. Living as a Jewish child in Kraków, Poland during the Holocaust Anita was faced with the toughest of challenges. Anita and her brother were separated from their family, captured by Germans, and lived years without seeing her parents practically raising herself and brother. This hard to read story told the story of a lot of kids in the Holocaust which made it very fascinating. Moving from country to country was how Anita and her brother spent the early years of their childhood. Anita, her brother, parents and Niania their nanny were faced with the toughest choices they ever had to make. This book really captures the relationship between Anita and Niania as well as Anita and her brother. Anita was a very strong little girl who made choices which may have saved her and her brothers lives. This historical book was very good and a very real story.
January 10, 2020
The author was only 5 when she and her brother fled their apartment in Krakow Poland with their Christian nanny. They traveled to smaller towns staying with family and friends, finally ending up in a convent. They avoided capture for nearly 5 years by posing as their nanny's children. Their real mother mostly stayed away to protect them. At one point they were in the ghetto, but escaped rather easily back to their nanny. Eventually, they were caught and taken to several concentration camps. Luckily the war was in its last stages by then, so they didn't suffer as long as many Jews did in the camps. Upon liberation, they were taken to Sweden and remained in a sanatorium for a year to recover from Tuberculosis.
The author is a talented writer. At times her descriptions are quite vivid. Other times she overstates minor details, slowing down the pace. The details after liberation are especially lackluster. There are definitely other Holocaust books which kids will find more interesting.
The author is a talented writer. At times her descriptions are quite vivid. Other times she overstates minor details, slowing down the pace. The details after liberation are especially lackluster. There are definitely other Holocaust books which kids will find more interesting.
May 25, 2017
Great book, loved how it portrayed what she went through, with out graphic details. There were only 3 times that I was a little bothered, two of the times was she used a swear word in the correct context, I would've just preferred reading, poop and bum instead of the words we've come to know as swear words. The other time she looked through a key hole and saw a naked nun bathing, she felt so guilty about looking, yet wanted to look again. This could bring up a great conversation for older children, where in our day and age pornography is so easily attained.
It gave a great perspective of a young girl always changing and adapting to her new environments. Loved being able to see and feel her fears and excitements. I think this is one of my new favorites because I feel I understood more about how the war affected her and I could relate.
It gave a great perspective of a young girl always changing and adapting to her new environments. Loved being able to see and feel her fears and excitements. I think this is one of my new favorites because I feel I understood more about how the war affected her and I could relate.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 15, 2019
Anita Lobel was born in Kraków, Poland. She was in the wrong place, at the wrong time, and that time happened to be World War 2. She spends the next four and a half years of her life running from the Nazi’s. Her Niania (nanny) takes care of her and her little brother as they run from the Nazi’s. But one day, they were caught. The Nazi’s invaded their hiding spot and Anita and her little brother are captured by the Nazi’s. They were sent to a concentration camp and separated from Niania and their mother. Will they survive? Anita Lobel leads the reader through a suspenseful, adventurous, emotional true story. Facing many challenges along the way, Anita develops strength, courage, and finds out who she can and cannot trust. If you enjoy World War 2 and adventurous books, No Pretty Pictures is the book for you.
April 3, 2020
I've read this book. Many times before. Too many to count. And I repeatedly come back to it. There's so many little things I discover each time I return. About myself and the story.
What I love about this book and what makes it so easy to come back to time and time again, is it's simple telling. It's just a five year old Jewish girl living through her experiences of Nazi Germany and her recovery after the war and migration to the United States. That's all it is. A plain simple retelling of what happened with no interruptions of an adult to chime in and set things straight, the way they see it.
I love that because it lets me interrupt the book for myself. Each time I return there are new meanings and symbols for me to recognize. And I'm able to arrive to a better understanding of this great injustice and tragedy.
What I love about this book and what makes it so easy to come back to time and time again, is it's simple telling. It's just a five year old Jewish girl living through her experiences of Nazi Germany and her recovery after the war and migration to the United States. That's all it is. A plain simple retelling of what happened with no interruptions of an adult to chime in and set things straight, the way they see it.
I love that because it lets me interrupt the book for myself. Each time I return there are new meanings and symbols for me to recognize. And I'm able to arrive to a better understanding of this great injustice and tragedy.
July 10, 2017
Poland
"I soon began to take for granted that life was always lived on the edge or in the shadow of terrible threats.
"Please make my brother and I invisible."
"They had caught up with us at last."
"My scalp never stopped itching. The Nazis' was had permanently sprinkled us with lice."
"The woman whose boy had been taken from her began to scream. Horribly. Her screams sliced through the icy night, hung there, suspended, useless, beyond help."
"It was only yesterday, but it seemed as if years had passed. I looked back. On the other side, there, behind us, we had left a world of hunger and mud and stench and corpses."
"I soon began to take for granted that life was always lived on the edge or in the shadow of terrible threats.
"Please make my brother and I invisible."
"They had caught up with us at last."
"My scalp never stopped itching. The Nazis' was had permanently sprinkled us with lice."
"The woman whose boy had been taken from her began to scream. Horribly. Her screams sliced through the icy night, hung there, suspended, useless, beyond help."
"It was only yesterday, but it seemed as if years had passed. I looked back. On the other side, there, behind us, we had left a world of hunger and mud and stench and corpses."
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