Beyond the Yellow Star to America

The author of I Am a Star: Child of the Holocaust here returns to her life story, a story full of cataclysmic events if not one particularly well rendered. She and her parents, newly liberated from Terezin and again living in their native Germany, emigrate in 1946 to the U.S., where they rise to financial and social struggles with bravery and determination. Shortly thereafter, Inge is diagnosed with tuberculosis and sent to a hospital for almost two years of enforced rest and other treatment. The painful irony of this development--that a girl spared from a death camp is now exiled to another institution to fight for her life--remains largely unexplored, with Auerbacher insistently looking on the bright side and recalling strings of episodes without clearly linking them to the progress of her narrative. Perhaps particularly mature young adults can rely on their own resources to understand the author's determined cheer; however, it invites readers' sympathy rather than their empathy. Ages 12-up. (Apr.)