Upon the Head of the Goat: A Childhood in Hungary 1939-1944

From Publishers Weekly
These memoirs of a Hungarian girl liberated from Bergen-Belsen, said PW , are among "the most powerful accounts yet written by a survivor of the Third Reich." Ages 12-up. Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.


Review
“At the outbreak of World War II, 9-year-old Piri is visiting her grandmother in the Ukrainian countryside and is unable to return to her family in the Hungarian town of Beregszász. Aranka Siegal, the Piri of the narrative, finally comes home the following year but finds her life forever changed.” – Starred, School Library Journal

“This is a book that should be read by all those interested in the Holocaust and what it did to young and old.” – Isaac Bashevis Singer

“A simple and beautiful account of the life of a Jewish family as, step by step, war and anti-Semitism creep closer to the Hungarian town in which they live, finally engulfing them.” – The New Yorker



Review
“At the outbreak of World War II, 9-year-old Piri is visiting her grandmother in the Ukrainian countryside and is unable to return to her family in the Hungarian town of Beregszász. Aranka Siegal, the Piri of the narrative, finally comes home the following year but finds her life forever changed.” – Starred, School Library Journal

“This is a book that should be read by all those interested in the Holocaust and what it did to young and old.” – Isaac Bashevis Singer

“A simple and beautiful account of the life of a Jewish family as, step by step, war and anti-Semitism creep closer to the Hungarian town in which they live, finally engulfing them.” – The New Yorker



Book Description
A Newbery Honor Book



Card catalog description
Nine-year-old Piri describes the bewilderment of being a Jewish child during the 1939-1944 German occupation of her hometown (then in Hungary and now in Ukraine) and relates the ordeal of trying to survive in the ghetto.


About the Author
Aranka Siegal’s Holocaust novels are based on her own experiences as a child. She lives in Miami, Florida.



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This warm and engaging look at the enduring spirit of the family will be a real find for teachers and librarians, as well as homeschoolers looking for a new viewpoint of the Holocaust. Siegal recalls her childhood in Hungary, from the outbreak of World War II until the day her family is sent to a Jewish ghetto and then to a death camp. At first a carefree 9-year-old, her outlook slowly grows in maturity as she becomes more aware of what is happening in her country. Siegal portrays her mother and sister as unsung heroines, never taking credit for the small acts of courage she herself displays. It's full of small, telling details such as the ways her mother copes with worsening food shortages, the increasing coolness of former "friends" who were Christian, and the fact that recess games were replaced with military exercises. They create an increasing sense of dread, especially since we know what the characters don't: that most Jewish families will not survive. Highly recommended. 2003 (orig. 1981), Sunburst/Farrar Straus and Giroux, Ages 12 up.


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