'Escape from War' by James Riordan (The Book Review)

'Escape from War' is a novel written by James Riordan. It is a novel with an interesting feature since it contains two stories, front and back, of two people during the beginning of World War II.

Part one of the novel is written in the perspective of Frank, a 12-year-old English boy from London. Frank and his sister Violet, 10, must evacuate their bomb-bombarded neighbourhood in London to a peaceful country side farm away from anyone they know and must learn to live with a German Jewish girl, Hannah, who is also an evacuee, but from Nazi German.

Part two of the novel is of the perspective of a 13-year-old girl, Hannah. After the brutality in Germany towards the Jewish Community and the death of her father in Nazi hands, Hannah’s mother decides to send Hannah and her brother Hans to England, the only nation who will accept Jews. On the journey Hans is taken away by Nazi soldiers and never seen again, once in England Hannah must learn English and cope with life on a farm with two naive English children, Frank and Violet.

Both perspectives express nostalgia for home and peaceful times, racial and social tolerances, death but also the fear that they may never see their loved ones again.

The aspects of 'Escape from War’ that I enjoyed were the concepts that the reader reads and understands both sides of a story from two different people, from two different backgrounds and experiences and how both stories harmoniously interweave with each other. I also enjoyed that the novel includes real events that occurred throughout World War II; this makes this book interesting but also educational. Also, the conversational language of both sides of the story creates an atmosphere as if the characters are writing in a journal or talking to the audience personally, which then the reader feels part of the story just as much as the character. The aspects that I disliked about this novel were that the stories of both characters Hannah and Frank seemed brief and did not continue after a certain point, it would have been a more interesting story if it further continued and mentioned further events during the war and how it would affect the lives of Hannah and Frank.

I definitely recommend this book to both boys and girls aged 11-13 because it is a fascinating story that gives insight into one of the most horrid wars in modern history, from a male and female perspective and also gives an insight into the thoughts and emotions going through people who are the same age as the target audience during this period of time.