REVIEW OF CATHERINE’S WAR
A. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Billet,
Julia. Illustrated by Claire Fauvel. Translated into English from the French by
Ivanka Hahnenberger. CATHERINE’S WAR. New York City, NY: HarperAlley, an
imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. ISBN 9780062915610.
B. PLOT SUMMARY
A Jewish girl named Rachel Cohen lives in a children’s home in France. The home
has its own school for the children. Rachel has not seen her parents for four
months. Nazi Germany is now occupying France. There are internment camps for
Jews. The Nazis are forcing the Jews to wear yellow stars to identify them. The
Jews are taking on fake names to hide their Jewish heritage. For their
protection, the teachers at the school force the Jewish students to take on new
non-Jewish names. Rachel is a name of Hebrew origin, and it gives Rachel away
as being Jewish. To protect herself, Rachel takes on the name Catherine. All
the Jewish students at the children’s home receive forged papers with new
non-Jewish identities. The Nazi Germans begin rounding up more and more Jews.
The teachers at the school realize they need to have the Jewish students leave
and go to a safer area. Catherine is taken to a part of France that is safer
for Jews. Unfortunately, it isn’t long before Catherine must flee again because
the Nazis come looking for Jews in the area Catherine is now in. She also must
take responsibility for a younger girl named Alice who will be traveling with
her. They find shelter with a family on a farm. However, the shelter doesn’t
last long. Nazis arrive looking for them. Catherine and Alice must flee again.
They are sent farther south in France to get away from the Nazis.
Unfortunately, the Nazis find their hiding place once again. They flee to hide
with a group of resistance fighters. Later Catherine and Alice must go their
separate ways. Finally, Paris is liberated from the Nazis. Catherine goes to
look for her parents. Unable to find her parents, she makes her way back to the
children’s home/school where she was at the start of the story. She is reunited
with some old friends and teachers. She eventually leaves to make her way in
the world.
C.
CRITICAL ANALYSIS (INCLUDING CULTURAL MARKERS)
This is well-written and well-illustrated historical graphic novel about World
War II. The characters are well-developed. We learn their hopes and fears. The
adults and the children in the story are well fleshed out. They are authentic
and there is a balance not found in the usual stereotypes. For instance, later
in the story, Catherine’s teacher, Miss Armande, is nothing like the teachers
that she had at the beginning of the story. Her first teachers were thoughtful,
caring adults who thought highly of their charges. They were intent on doing
their best for their students, to help them become the best they could be.
Conversely, Miss Armande doesn’t even want to be a teacher. She was conscripted
to the position, and she thinks very poorly of all her students (except
Catherine.) Another example of the characters not being stereotyped is the Nazi
soldier that Catherine meets in the shop in town. He ends up providing help and
kindness to Catherine, nothing like the Nazi stereotype. The setting is
consistent with the time and place the story takes place in. Many of the
locations are historically accurate. For instance, at the beginning of the
story we learn that Jews are being rounded up and interned in a camp in a place
in France called Drancy. This is historically accurate. The internment camp for
Jews in Drancy really did exist. This historical novel for children places an
emphasis on historical accuracy.
D.
AWARDS AND REVIEW EXCERPTS
Batchelder Honor Book (2021)
USBBY Outstanding International Book (2021)
Horn
Book: “This graphic novel (adapted from a novel by Billet and
inspired by her mother’s life) follows teenage Rachel Cohen from one place to
another in WWII France. By changing her name to Catherine Colin and hiding her
Jewish identity, she is able to live at schools and an orphanage as well as
with families throughout the occupied and free zones, moving whenever Nazi
suspicion encroaches — and always documenting her experiences with her
Rolleiflex camera. Though the story covers Rachel/Catherine’s adolescence, the
smoothly translated text is clear enough, and gentle enough in its explanations
of the Holocaust, to be comprehensible to readers younger than the character.
Themes of self-expression — Catherine’s photography is a rare constant in a
life overwhelmed by change — will likely resonate with a wide variety of
readers. The back matter is pitched to explain this story’s context to young
people with little or no background knowledge about WWII or the Holocaust,
though readers familiar with the basics may learn something new about this
specific setting.”
Kirkus: “This story will make
readers want to join the Resistance. In 1942 France, Rachel calls the people
who run the Children’s Home where she lives by animal names—Seagull, Penguin,
Shrew—to keep their real names hidden from the Nazis. As the Nazis add more and
more restrictions against Jews, Rachel must change her identity also, to
Catherine. Catherine, unlike Rachel, is allowed to eat pork. The expression on
her face as she tries it for the first time is nearly glowing. In a lovely
three-panel sequence, Fauvel captures each tiny shift in emotion. Her ability
to show complex feelings with the smallest possible strokes of ink is
remarkable, and Billet has given her memorable scenes to draw, such as a
sequence in which students are drilled on their new names, over and over, in a
classroom exercise... Characters are drawn so
vividly that, long afterward, readers will remember their names.”
School
Library Journal: “Billet has crafted a
pictorial paean to the everyday heroes of Vichy France, as seen through the
eyes—and camera lens—of a Jewish teen. Rachel Cohen’s story begins in 1942 at
the Sèvres Children’s Home outside Paris, where students separated from their parents
direct their own education. As Nazi deportations increase, the school’s Jewish
residents must flee. Rachel assumes a new identity—Catherine Colin—and hides in
plain sight. Aided by those she meets on her journey, “Catherine” travels from
Sèvres to a monastery in Riom, a family farm in Limoges, an orphanage in the
Pyrenees, and a second small farm before finally returning to a liberated Paris
in the hope of reuniting with her parents. Along the way, her beloved
Rolleiflex camera documents her story one snapshot at a time. Adapted from a
novel based on Billet’s mother’s wartime experiences, this tale vividly renders
a period that might seem removed to younger readers. Almost every
panel—especially those inspired by real photographs—could stand alone as a work
of art. This brief book will leave readers wishing they could spend more time
among the torrent of settings and characters. VERDICT A remarkable tribute to the generosity,
compassion, and courage of ordinary people who endanger themselves to do right,
as well as those who capture glimpses of light in the darkness.”
Booklist: “Billet tells the story of
Catherine Colin, born Rachel Cohen, and her experiences as a Jewish girl living
in France during WWII in this graphic novel originally published in French
and adapted from Billet’s novel of the same name. Catherine’s story begins in a
progressive school where she learns about and acquires a passion for
photography. As the Germans gain a stronger hold on France, Catherine is forced
to move throughout the country to evade capture, but she meets many supportive
friends along the way. The lyrical translation reads like a memoir, and it is,
in fact, based on Billet’s mother’s experience as one of the “hidden children”
of WWII. Catherine is always looking for opportunities to photograph people,
and illustrations of her photographs appear often throughout the book. In
Fauvel’s artwork, many of the settings are beautifully detailed, with a muted
palette that helps evoke the bleak circumstances and landscape, and while the
characters receive less definition, they’re undeniably expressive. The ravages
of WWII are not glossed over (readers learn of people who go missing, never to
be heard from again, and see people with missing limbs, though not in
particularly graphic detail), but Catherine’s ability to find beauty in the
world regardless makes for a forward-looking read.”
Publishers
Weekly: “Billet’s emotive historical graphic novel portrays a Jewish
girl forced to hide her identity during the Nazi occupation of France. When
Rachel Cohen’s school outside Paris becomes unsafe, the aspiring photographer
changes her name to Catherine Colin and forsakes any expression of her Jewish
identity. Before being whisked away by the French resistance, Catherine’s
teacher asks her to take pictures of the war (“We’ll need these testimonies”).
After, she lives an itinerant life, traveling from a Catholic boarding school
in Saint-Eustache to a peasant farm near Limoges and later to an orphanage in
the Pyrenees. Though fear and trauma haunt the country, Catherine encounters
the selflessness and sacrifice of strangers, becoming a selfless and generous
young woman in the process. Fauvel’s earth-toned illustrations feature
expressive faces alongside panels of photographs being developed, which prove
moving as they become visible alongside other characters’ disappearances. While
no scenes from the war are portrayed, violent episodes do occur. Thoughtful
meditations on the importance of art and shared connection combine with
historical fact to make Catherine’s journey feel relevant.”
E. CONNECTIONS
This story helps the reader learn what life was like for Jews suffering from
Nazism.
Here are some other graphic novels about
the struggle of Jews to exist:
Heuvel, Eric. A FAMILY SECRET. ISBN 978-0374422653
Heuvel, Eric. THE SEARCH. ISBN 978-0374464554
Shayne, Ralph. HOUR OF NEED. ISBN 978-1499813579
Dauvillier, Loic. HIDDEN: A CHILD’S STORY
OF THE HOLOCAUST. ISBN 978-1596438736
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