Wolf, J.M. (2007). Someone Named Eva. New York: Clarion Books.
· Plot Summary
Milada lives in Lidice, Czechoslovakia with her parents, siblings, and her grandmother. It's 1942, and Hitler seeks revenge on the village due to the attempts of freedom fighters to end his activities. Taken from their homes, the citizens are divided by gender, and some few chosen girls are made part of a special Nazi project. Milada is one of the chosen, her perfect blonde hair and blue eyes making her the epitome of Hitler's Aryan ideal. At the Lebensborn Center, she and the other girls are given new names, and forced to learn all things German. Denied their own language, and eventually given to new families to raise, Milada (now called Eve) and her peers are meant to fulfill the destiny of providing Germany with further Aryan children. Throughout it all, Milada must struggle to remember who she really is, and hope that one day she will be reunited with her family.
· Critical Evaluation
Excellent representation of actual events as explained by those that experienced them. Many are the novels that express the horrors felt by groups such as the Russians and Jewish communities, but few are the ones that indicate how those considered "superior" also suffered at the hands of the Nazis. This is especially true of novels for this age group, but this book provides the reader with an exemplary understanding of how changing history can be as simple as retelling the events to suit the tastes of those in power.
· Reader’s Annotation
Powerful book without ever giving mention to anything traditionally thought of as horrific. Good example of the trauma historical revision can inflict on a single person, and an entire people.
· Information about the author
Joan M. Wolf grew up in South Dakota with her parents and sister, but attended Hamline University in St.Paul, Minnesota for the purposes of receiving her MFA in Writing. Someone Called Eva took seven years to write, and began as part of an assignment for one of Wolf's graduate courses.
· Genre
Historical Fiction
· Curriculum Ties
History
· Booktalking Ideas
Childhood WWII experiences.
Nazi propaganda and the effect on the German people.
· Reading Level/Interest Age
Grades 5-8/Ages 9-11
· Why did you include this book in the titles you selected?
I was drawn in by the cover, and didn't realize at the time that the book was a perfect counterbalance to The Devil's Arithmetic, which I had already read. Both are novels about girls that lose their identities as part of Hitler's goal of a perfect Germany and European domination.
