A review by snekmint
Twenty and Ten by Janet Joly, Claire Huchet Bishop
3.0
This is a book for upper elementary school children about Nazi-occupied France. Over the course of a few days, Nazi soldiers arrive at a church/school where 20 French children live with a nun, and search it for evidence that they are hiding Jewish children--which they are. The children hold fast and refuse to betray the Jewish children despite bribery and threats from the Nazis. There is no way to avoid the fact: it is a tale of war. This is a story of heroic love and faithfulness among victims.
It is also written in a gentle and age-appropriate way-- the Nazi soldiers are frightening and clearly horrible, but Bishop uses an author's most wonderful and impactful weapons against them: demonstrations of courage, incredible cleverness under pressure, unshakeable faith and friendship in the face of evil; and most powerful of all, making the Nazis look foolish and outsmarted. Laughter, literally displayed in this book by 20 children laughing at the man who mistook the ramblings of a toddler, is a wonderful force that unmans and disarms the powerful.
This little vignette of resistance during war is one that belongs in every school library.
It is also written in a gentle and age-appropriate way-- the Nazi soldiers are frightening and clearly horrible, but Bishop uses an author's most wonderful and impactful weapons against them: demonstrations of courage, incredible cleverness under pressure, unshakeable faith and friendship in the face of evil; and most powerful of all, making the Nazis look foolish and outsmarted. Laughter, literally displayed in this book by 20 children laughing at the man who mistook the ramblings of a toddler, is a wonderful force that unmans and disarms the powerful.
This little vignette of resistance during war is one that belongs in every school library.