The Endless Steppe
Recommended. Age: 10+. A Catholic review of this book for parents.
Our review
In 1941, Soviet soldiers take ten-year-old Esther and her family from their home in Poland. They are sent far away to Siberia, where they work hard and are poor and hungry. They stay together and survive, and Esther even learns to love the wide steppe. A true story of a family's love and endurance, Recommended. Age 10, set by the publisher.
For parents
Age 10, set by the publisher (HarperCollins edition, ages 10 and up on its Publishers Weekly listing). No Common Sense Media review was found. Read it aloud from 8. Soldiers seize the family's home and send them by train to Siberia, where they do forced labor in a gypsum mine. Esther's grandfather dies after being sent to a logging camp. After the war the family learns that nearly everyone they knew died in the Holocaust, and they meet anti-Semitism back home. Ask: what did Esther's family keep when they lost everything? How did they help each other? What do we hold on to when times are hard?