Sarah's Key Review

These are the voiceless children. The silenced adults. The massacre that no one cared about. The Vel' d'Hiv victims were brushed off the shoulders of their own countrymen in World War II. On July 16 and 17, 1942, the French police began a roundup of 13,152 Jewish men, women, and children living in Paris. The families were kept in such appaling conditions at the Velodrome d'Hiver that the "only way to shut out the hell around [you] was to bury [your] head in [your] knees," (page 38). The sights seen in that stadium were enough to make you go mad. There were rotting bodies lying on the ground like sacks of limp bags of flour, and a constant fear clinging to the air. After being kept there for a few days, the families were sent to internment camps within France and finally sent to Auschwitz. The action was sanctioned by the Nazis but that level of coordination, identification, and organisation would only have been possible with the cooperation of French police and government officials. "None of them came back from Auschwitz," (Page 29).

In Tatiana de Rosnay's historically acurate depiction of these horrifying events in Sarah's Key, she manages to capture a loss of innocence and hope that is so hearbreaking it would make a British royal guard break out of character to cry. Rosnay paints the story of two separate stories that eventually overlap. One, of a 10 year old girl named Sarah, who was taken with her family on the night of the round up to the camps in France, but in a panic, locks her younger brother in their cupboard thinking he'll be safe there. Second, a modern day American Journalist living in France named Julia, who is determined to find out what happend to Sarah and her family. Through Rosnay's depiction, the audience painfully and sadly watches Sarah go from a sweet, innocent, golden-haried girl, into a beaten down, weak, shell of a little girl, who is capable of evil. This becomes extremely obvious when she changes dramatically at the camp. She had "become someone else. Someone hard, and rude, and wild. Sometimes she fought with the older children...she swore at them. She hit them. She felt dangerous, savage," (Page 80). Rosnay shows the journey of a girl who was once filled with hope, life and innocence, and slowly turns into a girl with no hope. No family. Nothing resembling childhood. Through Rosnay's descriptions of sadness, the audience sees how the French ripped away one of the greatest gifts in life, the gift of innocence.

Rosnay's use of sentence fragments is also unrivaled. It adds to the sadness and dramaticness of the story, as well as develops the characters. Her language is not too flowry. It's raw. It hits you to the core. Nothing is built up with sugar plums and unnecessary fluff. It's simply raw emotion. Her language also matches with Sarah's loss of innocence. At the beginning of the book her language was young, innocent and had an aura of childhood. But by the end of the novel, Sarah is talking like an adult. It is these things that make Sarah's Key a literary classic.

Another great quality of the book is that none of the characters are perfectly made. They all make mistakes. Julia is certainly not perfect and she makes several almost unforgiveable errors of judgement in the book. It added realism and more raw emotion to the book that sets the book a part from other historical fiction novels. In addition it also added a level of relatability. On that same note, Sarah, although her situation was unrelatable, her emotions were extremely relateable.

In conclusion, this book is a B+. I story was very interesting because of the parallel stories and the emotion conveyed, but it was almost too sad for me to get through it. The language is unrivaled to any book I've read, as well as the story itself and the historical accuracy, but I usually read books in other genres. Sarah's Key was a great read, that is jam packed with emotion, pure sadness, and loss of innocence.

Sarah's Key Trailer

Book 1 Project: The Fault in Our Affliction Fan Memorabilia Pack

Meet the new Romeo and Juliet. We fall in love with The Fault in our Stars’ Hazel Grace Lancaster and Augustus Waters “the way you fall asleep, slowly, and then all at once.” Hazel and Augustus are two of the most beloved characters written in this decade, and despite the fact that they are fiction, with The Fault in Our Affliction Fan Memorabilia Pack, fans get the chance to enter the world of Hazel and Augustus, literally. Included in this pack is a “literal” heart of Jesus, an infinity necklace for girls and an infinity wristband for boys, a t shirt with cigarettes on it the says “it’s a metaphor,” all enclosed inside a box made to look like the fictional book talked about in the novel, An Imperial Affliction. With this pack you can relive the best lines, objects and moments from The Fault in our Stars!

            When Hazel and Augustus first meet at a support group for kids with cancer in The Fault in our Stars, their first encounter is quite hilarious. The support group leader Patrick says while praying that the group is “literally in the heart of Jesus,” this turns into one of the most memorable conversations of the novel: "We are literally in the heart of Jesus," he said. "I thought we were in a church basement, but we are literally in the heart of Jesus." "Someone should tell Jesus," I said. "I mean, it's gotta be dangerous, storing children with cancer in your heart." "I would tell Him myself," Augustus said, "but unfortunately I am literally stuck inside of His heart, so He won't be able to hear me." With the Fault in our Affliction Fan Memorabilia Pack, fans can get a “literal” heart of Jesus that inside stores the most memorable quotes from the novel that can be posted on notebooks, walls or anything! Fans can relive the hilarity of this joke and feel closer to Hazel and Augustus. What we’re offering here, essentially, is to connect with some of the most memorable moments and quotes of the novel, which is also offered with the infinity necklace/wristband included in the pack. Hazel tells Augustus that “some infinities are bigger than other infinities,” which fans of the novel will love because they can now be both stylish and be connected to Hazel and Gus! In the novel, Gus is also deeply in to metaphors. He often would pull out a cigarette, place it between his teeth, and yet, not smoke it. He said that “It's a metaphor, see: You put the killing thing right between your teeth, but you don't give it the power to do its killing.” This t shirt enclosed in the pack is both a way for Gus to live on even though he passed away, and it’s a conversation starter. It’s not every day someone’s wearing a shirt with cigarettes on it! Be a trend setter! In the novel, Hazel has an obsession with a book very relatable to her, An Imperial Affliction. She can relate to it like no one else can and it comes up again and again throughout the novel, making fans wish it was a real book. All the items in this pack are enclosed inside of a box painted to look like the book cover for An Imperial Affliction. Fans can feel like the novel is real and also create their own sequel to An Imperial Affliction with the extra blank pages inside the box.

            This fan memorabilia pack will allow The Fault in our Stars fans to relive the quotable and memorable moments in the book and feel as if they know Hazel and Gus themselves. It’s a way to continue the infinity and is something that can be passed down for generations. This pack is so one of a kind that its appeal will garner new fans to flock to the book immediately. Its appeal will also attract people to John Green’s other novels and could lead to more memorabilia packs. All the items represent ideas central to the novel as a whole, and with the pack fans can experience them for themselves. The items enclosed are special, and things that can be cherished forever, just like Hazel and Gus’ little infinity.
 

 

 

What is a book?

Alright. I’m a sports gal, so I’m going to break it down with a classic sports analogy. A book is an NFL football game.

Seems farfetched and stupid, but then again, doesn’t reading a classic novel on a blinding white, killer of book ambiance Kindle screen seem a little stupid as well?

So let me break it down for you. Play by play.

I’m going to ask a series of questions that I want you guys to ponder over:

1.       Would you rather A) Take the chance of a lifetime and go to The Superbowl to watch your favorite team, or B) Watch the game at home while watching all the fans having grand old times without you?

2.       Would you rather A) Watch Tom Brady break a record or watch Ray Lewis do his last intro dance live, boasting to your friends, “That I, (insert name here), was there. I am a part of history!!!” Or B) Watch it from your home and say, “Oh yeah, I saw that on TV.” Well congrats, bud. So did 20 million other people.

3.       What do you get at a live NFL game that you don’t get while you’re slothin’ it up on the couch at home? The ambiance of it all, of course. The smells, sights, and feelings are such a rush that just watching the game at home almost feels like a betrayal to the team. You’re not alongside screaming fans. You’re not 10 feet away from your sports idol. You’re not hugging AJ Green as he leaps up into the stands. You’re not there.

Need I say more?

Books are exactly the same way. They are once in a lifetime opportunities. You’re a part of history by reading this book. And of course, the ambiance. Nothing says heaven to me more than curling up by the fire with a yummy hot beverage and reading a classic Jane Austen novel. The sights, smells and feelings associated with a physical book are such a rush that reading from a Kindle almost seems like a betrayal to the author. Nancy Jo Sales said it best when she said that “There’s something about the physicality of a book, the way it looks and feels and even smells—the notes written in the margins—that makes it a living breathing companion.”

So, dear Kindle companies, if you ever get rid of books completely, why don’t ya just get rid of fans going to NFL and other professional games while you’re at it?

Post #1: Why I Read.

R...E... A... D.

Four letters. One word. Yet so much meaning.
Growing up as a little girl with her nose in book every day, yearning to learn new words-- "big words" like: "gregarious," "precocious," and "ubiquitous,"it's funny that one simple, four letter word would come to mean so much to me. Just as simple as the word is, the reason I read is quite simple as well. I read to escape. To imagine. To live in a world--at least for 300 pages--that was bigger and better than my own. I read to clink champagne glasses with Jay Gatsby. I read to cast spells alongside Harry Potter. To adventure the streets of New York with Holden Caulfield. To play games and run away from Boo Radley with Scout.
I'm aware that this is quite cliche. But it's the truth. Authors pen worlds that I aspire to create myself--which is quite cliche in itself. And yet, it is the characters that I admire in books that teach us to appreciate the cliche. That good is better than evil. That love conquers all. That imagining something cliche is better than not imagining at all.