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Escape from Berlin #3
Finding Sophie
Selected by the Pennsylvania School Librarians Association as one of the PSLA YA Top Forty Fiction Titles 2003
Nominated in the fiction category for the 2004/2005 Red Cedar Book Awards (British Columbia's Young Reader's Choice book award)
Sophie Mandel was only seven years old when she arrived in London on the first Kindertransport from Germany. She has grown up with a friend of her parents, a woman she calls Aunt Em, and despite the war and its deprivations, she has made a good life for herself in England with her foster mother. She has even stopped thinking about the parents she left behind. Now the war is over, and fourteen-year-old Sophie is faced with a terrible dilemma. Where does she belong?
In this, the third book about the characters introduced in G ood-bye Marianne a nd Re member Me, Ir ene N. Watts explores the themes of friendship, family, and the nature of love. Fi nding Sophie is sure to become a favorite.
Nominated in the fiction category for the 2004/2005 Red Cedar Book Awards (British Columbia's Young Reader's Choice book award)
Sophie Mandel was only seven years old when she arrived in London on the first Kindertransport from Germany. She has grown up with a friend of her parents, a woman she calls Aunt Em, and despite the war and its deprivations, she has made a good life for herself in England with her foster mother. She has even stopped thinking about the parents she left behind. Now the war is over, and fourteen-year-old Sophie is faced with a terrible dilemma. Where does she belong?
In this, the third book about the characters introduced in G ood-bye Marianne a nd Re member Me, Ir ene N. Watts explores the themes of friendship, family, and the nature of love. Fi nding Sophie is sure to become a favorite.
138 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2000
6 people are currently reading
107 people want to read
About the author
Irene N. Watts
28 books13 followersIrene N. Watts is a German-born Canadian writer and educator. She was born in Berlin in 1931 and lived there for seven years. She moved to the United Kingdom by way of Kindertransport and was educated in England and Wales. Watts earned degrees in English literature and modern history at Cardiff University.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
January 30, 2019
I remember it being better the last time I read it - a few years ago.
October 23, 2024
I just love kids books about WWII
May 6, 2012
In 1938, when Zophie Mandel was 7, she had lived in Germany all her life with her Jewish father and Aryan mother. With the coming of the Nazis, however, life was getting more and more dangerous and her parents sent her to England (via the Kindertransport) to live with an old friend of her mother. Zophie became Sophie, she forgot German, and Aunt Em became her family.
Now the war is ending and Sophie doesn't know what is to become of her. She doesn't want to go back to Germany but she's worried about being repatriated. She doesn't know what happened to her parents--she barely remembers them. Although we get a pretty clear picture of what Zophie's life was like prior to her being sent to England, this is a book grounded in Sophie's present--she's an almost 14-year old girl who acts and feels like a typical British young teen, Aunt Em's child, part of a group of young people who were evacuated to the country together, who came back and lived through the war together. Her shared memories are British, not German.
She wonders who she is. What will become of her?
Now the war is ending and Sophie doesn't know what is to become of her. She doesn't want to go back to Germany but she's worried about being repatriated. She doesn't know what happened to her parents--she barely remembers them. Although we get a pretty clear picture of what Zophie's life was like prior to her being sent to England, this is a book grounded in Sophie's present--she's an almost 14-year old girl who acts and feels like a typical British young teen, Aunt Em's child, part of a group of young people who were evacuated to the country together, who came back and lived through the war together. Her shared memories are British, not German.
She wonders who she is. What will become of her?
March 12, 2013
gr 2-5 113 pgs
Athabascan village, Alaska 1948 10 year old Frederika "Fred" is worried when they get a new teacher Miss Agnes. Will she be like all the others and leave at the first opportunity? Fred and her classmantes discover that Miss Agnes is nothing like the other teachers. She believes that everyone should get an education even Fred's twin Bokko, who is deaf. Miss Agnes finds a way to engage her students by teaching them using their experiences and interests. Fred and her classmates have never enjoyed school so much, the only problem is how can they get Miss Agnes to stay for always.
I would recommend this story to anyone interested in stories set in the Alaskan frontier or stories about great teachers.
Athabascan village, Alaska 1948 10 year old Frederika "Fred" is worried when they get a new teacher Miss Agnes. Will she be like all the others and leave at the first opportunity? Fred and her classmantes discover that Miss Agnes is nothing like the other teachers. She believes that everyone should get an education even Fred's twin Bokko, who is deaf. Miss Agnes finds a way to engage her students by teaching them using their experiences and interests. Fred and her classmates have never enjoyed school so much, the only problem is how can they get Miss Agnes to stay for always.
I would recommend this story to anyone interested in stories set in the Alaskan frontier or stories about great teachers.
October 23, 2014
In 1938, when Zophie Mandel was 7, she had lived in Germany all her life with her Jewish father and Aryan her Christian mother. With the coming of the Nazis, however, life was getting more and more dangerous and her parents sent her to live with an old friend and changed her name to Sophie Mandel. After her great time in England ,war was coming to an end and Sophie had recived a letter and there was a sad news that her mom died after a bomb hit the building where she was in and her dad wants her to come back and live the life in German.She doesn't want to go back to Germany but she's worried about being very noticeable, she doesn't know her parents she barely remember them . Although we get a pretty clean picture of what Sophie. With some things used from
June 9, 2012
Suprisingly, i enjoyed this book. there are too many books on the events during the holocaust and world war 2 but when the war ends so does the book. being really into history, i really liked the perspective of a young refugee trying to figure out where she belongs in a post war london. Does she stay with the woment who has raised her and treated her as one of her own for the past decade or return to the torn lands of germany, to be with her father who survived in a concentration camp and who loves her but she hardly knows him. this book is a short and easy read and it provides a new outlook on WW2.
March 10, 2013
gr 5-8
1945 London, England. 14 year old Sophie hardly remembers her parents. She was only 7 years old when she was evacuated from Germany on the Kindertransport. For six years, "Aunt Em", her mother's friend has raised her. Now the war is over, Sophie worries about when she will hear from her parents. How can she leave England and everything she knows, which after all the years feels more like home then she is sure Germany would.
This story provides a lot of information about growing up in wartime London and the changes the people experienced, especially children who'd been evacuated, when the war came to an end.
1945 London, England. 14 year old Sophie hardly remembers her parents. She was only 7 years old when she was evacuated from Germany on the Kindertransport. For six years, "Aunt Em", her mother's friend has raised her. Now the war is over, Sophie worries about when she will hear from her parents. How can she leave England and everything she knows, which after all the years feels more like home then she is sure Germany would.
This story provides a lot of information about growing up in wartime London and the changes the people experienced, especially children who'd been evacuated, when the war came to an end.
August 18, 2016
This book explores a young girl’s experience in post-war Britain. Born to a Jewish father, Sophie travels to Britain to stay with Aunt Em, finding refuge from the Nazis in her home country of Germany. Now that the war is over, Sophie wrestles with finding where she belongs in a divided world. Simple and smart, this book helps readers see the challenges of the post-war through a child’s eyes. 4 stars.
Heather
August 14, 2019
Read with Grade 9 in mind - theme of identity. Might work - especially with the narrator working in two time periods and referring to herself in the third person when she talks about her past. A good book, not great but interesting and potentially thought provoking for grade 9s. It's lack of action might make it a hard sell for some, but it's length makes it accessible for in-class study.
July 30, 2010
I enjoyed this book. Writen in First Person it is almost like a journal including her ideas and thoughts. She is a refuge in England before during and after WWII. A short little read, interesting to think about what it must have been like for those children who after six years had two families.
August 6, 2011
Zoffie (anglicized as Sophie) was the daughter of a Jewish father and an Aryan mother in 1938 Berlin. Her parents sent her to live with a friend in England during WWII in order to protect her from the Nazis and this is her story extending past VE Day.
July 2, 2016
My highest recommendation for this novel. The simplicity and leanness with which it was written covered such complex and layered topics, and did them full justice. Simply excellent.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews