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The Shadow Children
"Maybe for us it's over. But not for the children. For them it will never be over."One summer after the Second World War, Etienne visits his beloved grand-father near the French town of Mont Brulant. A two-month vacation stretches before Etienne -- with hay to be turned, pears to be harvested, and old books to help repair. Best of all are the fields and woods around Mont Brulant, waiting to be explored on the back of Grand-père's horse.
But this year Mont Brulant isn't the same as Etienne remembers it. Why don't any young people live in the town now? he wonders. And why doesn't anyone else notice the refugee children begging along the road?
Then one day Etienne discovers children living in the woods -- children named Isaac and Sarah, and many others. Grand-père says he's imagining things. But why is Grand-père so worried about the markings that suddenly appear on Etienne's forearm?
As Etienne unravels the truth of what happened to the children of Mont Brulant, he and Grand-père must together confront an unspeakable tragedy. Steven Schnur's remarable tale of guilt and rememberance will stay with readers long after the last page is turned.
But this year Mont Brulant isn't the same as Etienne remembers it. Why don't any young people live in the town now? he wonders. And why doesn't anyone else notice the refugee children begging along the road?
Then one day Etienne discovers children living in the woods -- children named Isaac and Sarah, and many others. Grand-père says he's imagining things. But why is Grand-père so worried about the markings that suddenly appear on Etienne's forearm?
As Etienne unravels the truth of what happened to the children of Mont Brulant, he and Grand-père must together confront an unspeakable tragedy. Steven Schnur's remarable tale of guilt and rememberance will stay with readers long after the last page is turned.
96 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1997
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
April 20, 2009
This young adult ghost story is highly disturbing and sparsely embellished with terrifying pictures. Inspires readers to consider right/wrong and what could have been done differently in the Holocaust. A story about Holocaust remembrance, guilt, and fear.
May 9, 2017
I'm giving this a 1. Terrified the living crap out of me as a kid. Maybe as an adult or tween I could have handled it, but elementary school is just not the time. Yes, we should be teaching our children about this important time in history and about taking an ethical stance, but this is not the way. I learned nothing, except to keep the lights on at night.
May 8, 2011
Ever since the end of World War II, 11 year old Etienne has spent his summers on his grandfather’s farm in Mont Brulant, France. Etienne can’t wait to get there this summer, dreaming of all the things he loves on the train trip, but when his grandfather, Monsieur Hoirie, picks him up at the train station, things feel different somehow. The usual summer magic and beauty are gone.
Riding in his grandfather’s horse-drawn wagon out to the farm, they pass a group of raggedy children. Probably refugees, Etienne thinks. He was used to seeing orphaned refugee children wandering and begging after the war. So Etienne is surprised when his grandfather doesn’t stop and give them something, as he always had done. But he is even more surprised when his grandfather says he hadn’t even seen the children.
The refugee children are forgotten as Etienne settles into farm life with his grandfather. And it is nice when Madame Jaboter, the butcher’s wife, comes by to help with some of the housework, as she did every Thursday since Etienne’s grandmother had passed away.
Later, he decides to go for a ride on the old farm horse, Reveuse. Eventually they come to what looks like an abandoned road, over which trees have grown, giving it a tunnel-like feeling. The air, he notices, is ice cold, despite the hot summer day. Etienne thinks he hears crying down the road, but when he tries to get Reveuse to ride forward, the horse appears to be frightened, refuses move and even throws him off his back. His grandfather brushes the incident off later, telling Etienne the road is an old railroad spur, and that he and the horse were probably just sleepy and imagining the crying.
Yet, when Etienne tells Madame Jaboter about it the next week, she becomes quite agitated and makes him promise never to go there again. The woods are haunted, she explains, with the souls of thousands of lost children, but she refuses to explain more, simply saying it is something no one likes to speak about.
Etienne can’t stop himself from returning to the abandoned road and one day he finds an infant’s gold bracelet. This is puzzling since no children live in Mont Brulant. It is a town of only old people now. The children who once lived there, like Etienne’s mother, left as soon as they could.
But another day out there, he hears chanting and when he explores, he meets a young man and several children, who asks him if there is any news. When Etienne tells them who he is, the young man says that Monsieur Hoirie has helped many, they owe him much.
Even more puzzled now, Etienne tells Madame Jaboter about the encounter, that the young man was named Isaac and he seemed to be teaching the children out of a large book. Besides farming, Monsieur Hoirie also restores old books. In his workshop is a long row of beautiful restored books, still waiting for the owner to come and pick them up. When Madame Jaboter points to these books, Etienne realizes they are the same as he saw in the woods.
But as he learns more about the children in the woods from Madame Jaboter, his grandfather becomes more and more agitated, and irritated at the woman for filling Etienne’s head with her superstitions.
The children, he snaps, are just the bad dreams of guilty consciences, “War is terrible, especially for children. They always suffer the most.” During the war, thousands of children were sent to Mont Brulant for safety, he explains. The town tried to help, but there were so many of them.” (pg 45) Still not satisfied with this explanation, Etienne continues to visit the abandoned road, where he starts to find all kinds of evidence of the children’s existence there.
One night, both Etienne and Reveuse both hear a train whistle in the distance. They ride out to the abandoned road, but this time the horse seems to have a mind of her own, throwing Etienne again when he tries to return to the farm. On the ground, he finds a fountain pen in good order, with blue ink. He tests it on his arm and a blue line appears that look very much like numbers. But when he gets home, the pen is old and rusted, and there is no ink in it.
Things reach a climax when they are taking Madame Jaboter home on the next Thursday. She and Monsieur Hoirie are napping as they go along the road, so well known by Reveuse. Suddenly Etienne sees a girl leading a large group of children. When the wagon comes to a stop, he jumps out and runs after the children, who are running away, but they disappear. When the wagon finally reaches town, Madame Jaboter sees the blue ink on Etienne’s arm and tells his grandfather it is a sign.
Finally, back at home, Etienne’s grandfather tells him about the children. Who are these children? What truths was the town hiding? And does it explain why there are no children in Mont Brulant?
The Shadow Children will cause more than a few hairs on the back of your neck to stand on end. It is a well crafted ghost story that keeps you in suspense even as Etienne finds more and more clues about the children in the woods. I don’t know if this may have been based on a true story, and there is no mention indication about it. There were, of course, many Jewish children who hid in the woods from the Nazis all over Europe. Some were lucky and taken in by people, others either perished in the woods or were caught by the Nazis.
The illustrations by Herbert Tauss are as haunting as the story, adding to the sense of suspense throughout the story. Most appear to be charcoal, some with a watercolor wash to them.
The Shadow Children is a short novel that forces one to think about is what they would have done under the same circumstances that the French residents of Mont Brulant found themselves in, making it an excellent choice to incorporate into a classroom discussion on the Holocaust. I highly recommend it.
This book was a 1994 Sydney Taylor Book award.
This book is recommended for reader age 9-12.
This book was purchased for my personal library.
Riding in his grandfather’s horse-drawn wagon out to the farm, they pass a group of raggedy children. Probably refugees, Etienne thinks. He was used to seeing orphaned refugee children wandering and begging after the war. So Etienne is surprised when his grandfather doesn’t stop and give them something, as he always had done. But he is even more surprised when his grandfather says he hadn’t even seen the children.
The refugee children are forgotten as Etienne settles into farm life with his grandfather. And it is nice when Madame Jaboter, the butcher’s wife, comes by to help with some of the housework, as she did every Thursday since Etienne’s grandmother had passed away.
Later, he decides to go for a ride on the old farm horse, Reveuse. Eventually they come to what looks like an abandoned road, over which trees have grown, giving it a tunnel-like feeling. The air, he notices, is ice cold, despite the hot summer day. Etienne thinks he hears crying down the road, but when he tries to get Reveuse to ride forward, the horse appears to be frightened, refuses move and even throws him off his back. His grandfather brushes the incident off later, telling Etienne the road is an old railroad spur, and that he and the horse were probably just sleepy and imagining the crying.
Yet, when Etienne tells Madame Jaboter about it the next week, she becomes quite agitated and makes him promise never to go there again. The woods are haunted, she explains, with the souls of thousands of lost children, but she refuses to explain more, simply saying it is something no one likes to speak about.
Etienne can’t stop himself from returning to the abandoned road and one day he finds an infant’s gold bracelet. This is puzzling since no children live in Mont Brulant. It is a town of only old people now. The children who once lived there, like Etienne’s mother, left as soon as they could.
But another day out there, he hears chanting and when he explores, he meets a young man and several children, who asks him if there is any news. When Etienne tells them who he is, the young man says that Monsieur Hoirie has helped many, they owe him much.
Even more puzzled now, Etienne tells Madame Jaboter about the encounter, that the young man was named Isaac and he seemed to be teaching the children out of a large book. Besides farming, Monsieur Hoirie also restores old books. In his workshop is a long row of beautiful restored books, still waiting for the owner to come and pick them up. When Madame Jaboter points to these books, Etienne realizes they are the same as he saw in the woods.
But as he learns more about the children in the woods from Madame Jaboter, his grandfather becomes more and more agitated, and irritated at the woman for filling Etienne’s head with her superstitions.
The children, he snaps, are just the bad dreams of guilty consciences, “War is terrible, especially for children. They always suffer the most.” During the war, thousands of children were sent to Mont Brulant for safety, he explains. The town tried to help, but there were so many of them.” (pg 45) Still not satisfied with this explanation, Etienne continues to visit the abandoned road, where he starts to find all kinds of evidence of the children’s existence there.
One night, both Etienne and Reveuse both hear a train whistle in the distance. They ride out to the abandoned road, but this time the horse seems to have a mind of her own, throwing Etienne again when he tries to return to the farm. On the ground, he finds a fountain pen in good order, with blue ink. He tests it on his arm and a blue line appears that look very much like numbers. But when he gets home, the pen is old and rusted, and there is no ink in it.
Things reach a climax when they are taking Madame Jaboter home on the next Thursday. She and Monsieur Hoirie are napping as they go along the road, so well known by Reveuse. Suddenly Etienne sees a girl leading a large group of children. When the wagon comes to a stop, he jumps out and runs after the children, who are running away, but they disappear. When the wagon finally reaches town, Madame Jaboter sees the blue ink on Etienne’s arm and tells his grandfather it is a sign.
Finally, back at home, Etienne’s grandfather tells him about the children. Who are these children? What truths was the town hiding? And does it explain why there are no children in Mont Brulant?
The Shadow Children will cause more than a few hairs on the back of your neck to stand on end. It is a well crafted ghost story that keeps you in suspense even as Etienne finds more and more clues about the children in the woods. I don’t know if this may have been based on a true story, and there is no mention indication about it. There were, of course, many Jewish children who hid in the woods from the Nazis all over Europe. Some were lucky and taken in by people, others either perished in the woods or were caught by the Nazis.
The illustrations by Herbert Tauss are as haunting as the story, adding to the sense of suspense throughout the story. Most appear to be charcoal, some with a watercolor wash to them.
The Shadow Children is a short novel that forces one to think about is what they would have done under the same circumstances that the French residents of Mont Brulant found themselves in, making it an excellent choice to incorporate into a classroom discussion on the Holocaust. I highly recommend it.
This book was a 1994 Sydney Taylor Book award.
This book is recommended for reader age 9-12.
This book was purchased for my personal library.
September 16, 2022
This is a heartrending short story to remember the Jewish children slaughtered by the Nazis. There's a touch of supernaturalism to bring the spirits of these children back. A unique aspect is to remember the anguish and guilt many citizens felt for not being able to save them.
November 26, 2025
I am so confused right now. Is this a novelette, novel, picture book, novella? Is the main character sleeping or dead or awake? Are the children dead or not? Are they even real? Were they ever real? Although I liked the general gist, everything was so confusing and muddled.
July 4, 2021
Fascinating and stirring storytelling... it will stay with me.
July 5, 2022
Quick read, very sad.
January 28, 2015
I simply love Library Thing! This book was listed as a recommendation based on my books cataloged. And now, I've discovered not only a book I can highly recommend, but in addition, I learned of the Sydney Taylor Book Award!
Steven Schnur's book was the 1994 recipient of the Sydney Taylor Book Award, established for authors of the most distinguished contributions to Jewish children's literature.
This coming of age book is the story of Etienne, an eleven year old young man, his grandfather and the sleepy French countryside of Mount Brulant.
While the writing is simple, the subject matter is gripping. While visiting his grandfather during post WWII, Etienne sees the ghosts of hundreds of starving, emaciated, raggedy, forlorn children hiding in the woods.
When asking his grandfather and other adults about his discovery, at first denied the truth, eventually, he learns the sad, tragic, terrible truth that Jewish children were sent to the country side seeking refuge, only to be hunted down by the Nazi's and killed.
While the kind people of Mount Brulant tried to help the children, in the end, they watched as the children were herded into trains to meet their death.
The story not only focuses on the children, but also allows us to feel the guilt of those who were unsuccessful in their attempts to save.
This is NOT a ghost story, this is a tale of a town that tried to do the right thing. This is a tale of innocent children who wanted to live.
Steven Schnur's book was the 1994 recipient of the Sydney Taylor Book Award, established for authors of the most distinguished contributions to Jewish children's literature.
This coming of age book is the story of Etienne, an eleven year old young man, his grandfather and the sleepy French countryside of Mount Brulant.
While the writing is simple, the subject matter is gripping. While visiting his grandfather during post WWII, Etienne sees the ghosts of hundreds of starving, emaciated, raggedy, forlorn children hiding in the woods.
When asking his grandfather and other adults about his discovery, at first denied the truth, eventually, he learns the sad, tragic, terrible truth that Jewish children were sent to the country side seeking refuge, only to be hunted down by the Nazi's and killed.
While the kind people of Mount Brulant tried to help the children, in the end, they watched as the children were herded into trains to meet their death.
The story not only focuses on the children, but also allows us to feel the guilt of those who were unsuccessful in their attempts to save.
This is NOT a ghost story, this is a tale of a town that tried to do the right thing. This is a tale of innocent children who wanted to live.
March 21, 2016
This is another book that I wish I could give half stars to, in this case 3 1/2, mainly because I'm on the line as to how I feel about it. It's well written, and there's an important theme to it, but it also crosses some boundaries that I'm not entirely comfortable with in some ways. It's a ghost story of children who died in the Holocaust, and certainly the historical events portrayed here are very similar to real ones, but this is a fictionalized account since the town described does not exist. The character of Isaac seems to have been loosely based on the real person Janusz Korczak. I'm not sure quite how I feel about turning a true horror into a ghost story. It would certainly make older children think about questions of morality, and it ensures that the victims are remembered, but it's also a really disturbing story. There isn't much hope here, just death. I do think some older students, maybe seventh grade or so, might be able to connect with this, though.
April 12, 2013
gr 5-8 86pgs
Post WWII France. 11 year old Etienne can't wait to visit his grandfather and spend the summer on his farm. When he gets there, Etienne keeps seeing children begging for food, but the other adults claim they can't see them. In the woods, Etienne meets Isaac and discovers that even more children are hiding in the woods waiting for it to be safe for them to go home. None of the adults want to answer Etienne's questions about the children, but Etienne persists. Finally he learns that during the war, thousands of children refugees came to the village. The villagers cared for them as best they could. The Nazis came and demanded that all the children be turned over to them and that anyone hiding the children would be killed. The villagers have not been able to forgive themselves for not defending the children.
Sad and haunting
Post WWII France. 11 year old Etienne can't wait to visit his grandfather and spend the summer on his farm. When he gets there, Etienne keeps seeing children begging for food, but the other adults claim they can't see them. In the woods, Etienne meets Isaac and discovers that even more children are hiding in the woods waiting for it to be safe for them to go home. None of the adults want to answer Etienne's questions about the children, but Etienne persists. Finally he learns that during the war, thousands of children refugees came to the village. The villagers cared for them as best they could. The Nazis came and demanded that all the children be turned over to them and that anyone hiding the children would be killed. The villagers have not been able to forgive themselves for not defending the children.
Sad and haunting
June 22, 2009
It was quite confusing at first. I couldn't tell what time period it was from, even though it's a holocaust book. The mystery was intriguing, however, and some of the illustrations were really disturbing, but in a good way.
January 14, 2009
A very sad story. A reminder to never forget the innocent people and children, who were slaughtered, in WWII just because they were Jewish. (and anything else the Nazis thought were impure)
October 19, 2009
So touching!I read it as a kid and it made me reconsider all the things i took for granted.I devoured it in only a day.A book that all children should read.
October 12, 2013
This book was okay. I picked it up just for a quick read. I give it 3 out of 5 stars. I wish it had been longer, because it probably would have been way better than it was.
July 10, 2016
Didn't work for me.
June 6, 2011
It had a message to it but not much of a story.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews