Good Night, Maman

by Norma Fox Mazer

Book Overview

Karin Levi's world of family, school, and friends is torn apart when the German army occupies Paris in June of 1940. Karin and her brother, Marc, like Jews all over Europe, find themselves on the run, seeking safety wherever they can find it. When Marc obtains two coveted places aboard a ship bound for the United States, Karin knows that crossing the ocean means she may never see her beloved parents again. Yet she and Marc have little choice if...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0152061738
• ISBN13: 9780152061739
• Release Date: April 2010
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.0" x 8.0"
• Age Range: 10 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 5 and higher

Customer Reviews

Good Night, Maman

Remarkable!Good Night, Maman by Norma Fox Mazer is both heartwarming and heartwrenching. The author tells a story of a Jewish family in the 1940's hiding in France after the loss of their father. The main characters Karin and her brother Marc are brought to life as they encounter the difficulties and trials of trying to get to America to live with an aunt. As the journey unfolds the story gives details of what happened to Karin, Marc and other immigrants. The story also explores the people who helped the Levi family and others of Jewish descent. Karin and Marc must gather the courage and the strength to be on their own at an early age while learning about a new culture and new expectations. Good Night, Maman is an excellent read aloud for a class studying WWII. The book also goes nicely with another WWII book entitled Number the Stars.

Read it with HAVEN Miniseries or Book

I found it extremely interesting, informative and moving to read this book in conjunction with watching the CBS Miniseries HAVEN (February 2001) starring Natasha Richardson and Ann Bancroft. (At this writing Bancroft has been nominated for an Emmy.) The heroine of GOOD NIGHT MAMAN is a displaced child who becomes one of the Oswego refugees safely - almost miraculously- escorted to the United States by Ruth Gruber in the midst of WW 2. In GOOD NIGHT MAMAN, NFM puts an unforgettable personal face and history on a brave girl who survived against all odds. The combination of reading this book and then watching HAVEN (or vice versa) is extremely powrful.

Good Night Maman

This book is about two Jewish kids, Karin and Mark, who escape to America. THey thought they were going there to be free, but they soon find out that they're being put behind a fence. Karin soon makes friends, is able to go to school, and...... I'm not going to tell you. You'll just have to read the book to find out! I recommend this book to anyone because it was so excellent!

War through the eyes of an adolescent

Karin and Marc are two of the lucky ones: French Jews, they have managed to make the long trek to Italy and escape from the Nazis--and their fellow French--who have hounded them for years. And, they are even luckier when they manage to board ship for America, for a refugee center located in Oswego, New York.Along the way to Italy, though, Karin and Marc are helped by several people. What is fascinating about this book is that it lays to rest the idea that nobody helped Jews at the same time that it demonstrates just how ambivalent, or even venal, some people were in offering such aid. Once the two of them get to Oswego, they are incorporated into American daily life--school, friends, etc, with the exception that every night they must return to the base. It's a sort of limbo, and the residents of the camp are both grateful for their rescue and justifiably resentful of their treatment as semi-prisoners.The best part of the book is Karin. Norma Fox Mazer has created a wonderful adolescent character who speaks to us in the voice of a woman-child who has been through so much. At times, she has flashes of such clear understanding, and the next, she's as confused as one would expect her to be. The author is to be commended for writing such a complex character and for shining a light on a complex topic.

Very Realistic.. Easy Read!

The characters are easy to realate to. As you are reading you feel like you are really experiencing the events that happen. When you start reading it you can't set the book down. Then, when you finish reading it you feel like you have lost a good friend. It's a must read!