REVIEWED BY SAHANA, 11, NSW
Waiting for the Storks by Katrina Nannestad, ABC Books, ISBN 9780733340888
Sahana’s review of this book was the winner in the 2024 Young Reviewers’ Competition.
I press my face against the bars of the truck and scream for my Mama and Tata. My heart slowly drops and tears slither down my cheeks. Desperation claws at me and I bang against the truck walls sobbing. I have lost Mama and Tata and I want to go home. I want to hear Tata’s laughter and see my Mama’s smile. I long to be laughing with them but I am stuck in a cold truck, with twenty or more little children like me.
Waiting for the Storks provides the perspective of a young Polish girl named Zofia. Poland lives under the Nazis’ rule and one gloomy night she is taken by the Nazis, kicking and screaming for her Mama and Tata. At this moment, the author, Katrina Nannestad, puts you in Zofia’s mind making you feel just as sad, angry and desperate as her.
She is taken into Himmler’s Lebensborn Program and adopted by a rich, loving, German family. It seems easier to forget her past. I am torn between what Zofia should do – is she a good, happy, German girl or a sad, defiant Polish Stork? We share Zofia’s happiness and we share her fear. We laugh when she laughs and cry when she cries.
The reason I love Waiting for the Storks is that I feel like I am with Zofia. Katrina Nannestad writes just enough so we get a glimpse of their emotion and are sucked in. The story becomes our journey and every friend or foe along the way is ours. When Zofia leaves her friends for Germany, a tear trickled down my cheek. I felt as if I had lost something within me.
I admire Zofia. She has been through so much and I think experiencing things with her forged a sort of bond between me and the character. It is so easy to relate to a character like Zofia and by the end of the book you are left with all the emotions from her journey.
Another thing that I liked about the book was that Katrina Nannestad was able to make this a more understandable and relatable book for young readers. World War ll is full of sadness and gore and other horrible things. I think we get a taste of that, just enough to make us understand, and not too much to overwhelm us.
At the end of the book you feel a sense of incompleteness. The tie I’ve forged with the story and Zofia makes it feel as if I have experienced it all. Her fear when they took her. Her sadness when she gave up. Her happiness amongst other children. Her desperation for her Mama and Tata. You want the story to keep going and that is the sign of any good writer. This book is perfect for readers 10–13 to have a glimpse into World War II, all in a beautiful, heartfelt story.
Read the first chapter of Waiting for the Storks at the publisher’s website.
Sahana’s review was the winner in the Primary category of Alphabet Soup’s 2024 Young Reviewers’ Competition. The competition is now closed, but we publish book reviews by young writers all year round. To send us YOUR book review, read our submission guidelines. Happy reading!
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Alphabet Soup’s Young Book Reviewers’ Competition 
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