One More Border: The True Story of One Family's Escape from War-Torn Europe

Working with Tanaka (On Board the Titanic), Kaplan delves into his father's childhood experiences for this combination family drama and history lesson. In 1939, Igor Kaplan and his younger sister, Nomi, leave their home in Memel, Lithuania, as their prescient parents keep one step ahead of the Nazis. In the Lithuanian capital, the now-legendary Japanese consul Chiune Sugihara gives Mr. Kaplan a visa for himself and the children. Mrs. Kaplan, who is Russian, needs separate exit and entrance visas; she somehow obtains the former just in time to join the family, already aboard the Trans-Siberian Express. After more dangerous journeys and 11th-hour deliverances, they finally reach Ontario, where the children's grandparents live. The Kaplans' saga, illustrated with attractive watercolors, is paralleled with archival photos and explanatory sidebars. For example, as the Kaplans flee Memel, photos on the facing page show Nazis goose-stepping and German soldiers marching through a burning Polish village; a three-paragraph caption defines WWII. While the explanatory apparatus will answer many of the general questions readers are likely to raise, some areas remain confusing (e.g., the contest between Nazis and Russians for control of Lithuania). The two-tier narrative can be distracting and deflects from the momentum of the Kaplans' narrow escapes; readers will have to know the background already before they can fully appreciate the desperate nature of the family's plight. Ages 9-12. (Sept.)