Hide and Seek
Author: Ida Vos
Original language: Dutch
Translated by: Terese Edelstein and Inez Smidt
Published: March 1995
Publisher: Penguin Random House
ISBN13: 9780140369083
Price: only second hand
Age: 10 - 12 years and up
Hide and Seek by children's book author Ida Vos is a beautiful, moving book about how two young Jewish sisters experience the Second World War in the Netherlands. Ida Vos has written a number of books for young people about her own experiences in World War II. She was 11 years old when the Second World War began. The sisters in this book are actually Ida and her sister Esther.
It gives today's children a clear picture of how it must have been for Jewish kids, living in wartime. Giving up your freedom bit by bit, no longer being able to go to school, the swimming pool or to the cinema with your friends. Finaly, go into hiding and not being able to go outside at all anymore. No freedom, living without friends and family and always, always you feel that fear.
Ida Vos has written about the Second World War beautifully in this book, very moving but not sentimental. Clear and honest, so that it becomes understandable to children how it was to live in wartime. From Ida's class with 35 Jewish children, 4 survived the war of which Ida was one.
In the video on top of the page you see Ida's son, Bert Vos with his Schretl orchestra. They are playing in the perfomance The suitcase of Ida Vos, to commemorate his mother's life.
3 clear shining stars for Hide and Seek, from the snazzie readers, young and older!