Myra Paperny. The Greenies
HarperCollins  $15.99  ISBN 0-00-639355  244 pg.
Reviewed by Melissa, Age 13

Amazing. That’s an understatement. Absolutely and utterly harsh. Myra Paperny took every day words, and spun them into a fictional tale about the holocaust. A group of Jewish refugees are being sent across the border to Canada. The three main characters in this book are Danny, Lilli and Marilyn. Danny and Lilli are the refugees, while Marilyn is from Canada and concentrates on her schoolwork and friends; that is until the ‘greenies’ arrive. Then her world is tossed inside out as she learns more and more about them. Lilli and Danny have close friends, whom they are never without, but they start to think that everything is going wrong. Danny is already in a foster home, and is working a full-time job. Lilli is in a home as well, but she hates it there. Her foster parents don’t seem to like her too much either. As for the rest of their refugee friends, everything is moving fast; Canada is so alien to them that they don’t know where to start. Along with the memories of their past, things are looking grim.

This book truly caught me up. I fell in love with all the characters at their first mention. They seem so real to me that I couldn’t help but think they actually lived. The author described everything about them and around them so well. This book was full of emotion. A non-stop roller coaster with hills to climb, and twists that forces you to hold your stomach. With a ride so fast, the tears would not stop falling from my eyes. The story was captivating, and the characters were loveable and wonderful. I could not put this book down.

The part I most admired about this book was how these children survived the lose and the war, the ultimate shattering of their very lives! It shocked me at what the Nazi did to them. Did to the Jewish, just because they were Jewish! What right did they have? I was frustrated by it, and still am. To think they never had families of their very own, to think they never had the comfort of feeling that they could go home to a hug and the smell of dinner cooking.

This book deserves more than five gleaming stars. I would give it ten if I could. This book actually did make me cry (I have never cried over a book in my life). I loved this book, and I recommend it to all readers out there ages thirteen and older.