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Spring 2005 issue of Jewish Book World
SIMON SAYS
Molly Levite Griffis
Eakin Press, 2004. 272pp. $22.95
ISBN: 1-57168-836-6
Reviewed by Ellen G. Cole
What engaging, emotional, and honest historical fiction! This pre-teen
novel is set in Oklahoma during World War II. The main characters are the
age of the readers; the protagonist is a boy. Characters, plot and history
merge in a story with broad appeal to both boys and girls. The plot reveals
a secret: Simon's true identity. It maintains tension by wondering if the
secret can be kept. Protagonist Simon Green is searching his things for a
farewell gift when he finds an old postcard from Europe begging for food.
This triggers a flashback to 1937 and Simon's origins: he is a German Jew;
his parents sent him to America to a Jewish family when he was six years
old. The American family changes his name to protect him and to advance
their own passionate desire to keep him permanently. During his years in
Oklahoma, Simon makes friends who know nothing of his background. One
friend is the spirited, inquisitive Rachel Dalton, the hero of the series of
which this book is the third. (The first two are not Jewish; you do not
need to read them to follow and love this book.) The two eleven year olds
solve a mystery that is more coat hanger than cliff hanger. Someone is
drawing swastikas all over town; this provides a hook for local history and
ethics. The swastika was a native Indian sign; local Kiowa resent the
Germans appropriating it. When Simon and Rachel solve the mystery, they
grapple with prejudgment, guilt, hate, stereotyping and fear. Simon fights
his overwhelming need to share his past until it is too much to bear and he
tells Rachel.
This novel has strong emotional guts. Simon's feelings run the gamut from
joy for his new, free life to anger at his real parents for sending him away
and at his adopting parents for trying to replace them to sorrow over
separation from first, his parents and now, his best friend. The book
reveals the cruelties of war, the Holocaust, and loss in a frank, age
appropriate way without sacrificing the lively charm of appealing characters
hunting a dastardly culprit. Readers learn about the impact of the war at
home: German saboteurs caught by the FBI; Japanese incarceration; and life
in a small town where residents see the war from an American but not Jewish
view point. The book bursts with local color artfully capturing time and
place. Expressions, manners and artifacts of the 1940's pepper dialog and
actions. The surprise ending is logical and tender, like the book itself.
Simon says, buy it! For ages 11 - 13.
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