about the book
It was an ordinary afternoon when Lilo, a fifteen-year-old Sinti Gypsy girl, is picked up with her family by the Nazis. The Romani of Austria have been targeted as a “plague,” and Hitler wants them all in concentration camps as quickly as possible.
A salvation of sorts comes for Lilo in the form of Nazi propagandist filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl, who takes Lilo away to be a movie extra.
Life on set is vastly different from anything else Lilo has experienced. The German stars are glamorous, the scenery is glamorous, and everything around them seems as glamorous as it can possibly be. Along with Django, a boy with a gift for music, Lilo learns how to survive and behave beneath the strictly disciplining hand of Riefenstahl.
Soon Reifenstahl becomes so drunk on her power that life and death are dealt out every day, forcing Lilo and Django to take their lives into their own hands and escape from the movie set.
about the author
When Kathryn Lasky was born, there were no Jewish bagels in the suburbs of Indianapolis, Indiana. She says she was born on the prairie because it sounds better than “the suburbs,” and it is not technically wrong since Indiana is a prairie state. They did have a pond in their backyard however, and a hill, which she and her sister Martha and best friend Carole would slide down in winter and play pirates around in summer.
Though she never liked school, somehow in college she got a lot of A’s, and became an English major. She loves Victorian literature, Romantic poetry, and stuff about the Renaissance. After college she worked a horrible job as a fashion magazine columnist. Then she became a teacher for a very short period of time—because she met her husband, Christ Knight, and left off teaching after that.
For their wedding, Kathryn’s parents got them a sailboat, which they took across the Atlantic Ocean twice. For Kathryn, twice is enough.
Now Kathryn has settled down with Chris in Cambridge, where her family inspires her to write almost every book she has ever written. Apart from being a writer, Kathryn is a daughter, sister, mother, and wife.
Sources:
Author website
Author interview : Book Q&As with Deborah Kalb
Also by Kathryn Lasky:
The Wolves of the Beyond series. Scholastic. 2010-2012.
Silk & Venom : Searching for a Dangerous Spider. Candlewick Press. 2011.
Chasing Orion. Candlewick Press. 2010.
Journey to the New World : The Diary of Remember Patience (Dear America). Scholastic. 2010.
A Voice in the Wind (Starbuck Twins Mystery, Book 3). Harcourt Paperbacks. 2008.
Shadows in the Water (Starbuck Twins Mystery, Book 2). Harcourt Paperbacks. 2008.
Double Trouble Squared (Starbuck Twins Mystery, Book 1). Harcourt Paperbacks. 2008.
The Guardians of Ga’Hoole series. Scholastic. 2003-2008.
John Muir : America’s First Environmentalist. Candlewick Press. 2006.
Portraits : Dancing Through Fire. Scholastic. 2005.
Interrupted Journey : Saving Endangered Sea Turtles. Candlewick Press. 2001.
read more!
Ashes by Kathryn Lasky
When the Nazis begin rising to power,teen Gabriella retreats into her books, always a source of escape and comfort. It is 1932, and before Gaby knows it. there are soldiers in the streets, her sister’s boyfriend is doing the Nazi salute, and the family friend—Albert Einstein—has to flee the country. Then the Nazis begin burning books.
Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys
Lina was living an ordinary teenage life in Lithuania, when the Soviets came and tore her family apart, forcing them onto crowded trains to go to work camps in Siberia. At the work camp Lina is forced to fight for her life against the bitter cold and brutal guards—her only solace is her art, using drawings to document the events that transpire.
The Berlin Boxing Club by Robert Sharenow
Even though his family has never gone to synagogue and doesn’t practice their ancestral religion, when the Nazis begin to take power in Germany, Karl suddenly finds himself being picked on for his Jewish roots. Longing for a way to prove his toughness, Karl jumps at the chance to train as a boxer with German national hero Max Schmeling.