Children of the Stars
By Mario Escobar
Jacob and Moses Stein, two Jewish brothers left with an aunt by their parents during WW2. Their parents had to leave Paris and were unable to take the boys. The boys left Paris on a long journey to find their parents. The Boys encountered many obstacles and had to keep hiding from the Nazis. They were rounding up all the Jews and sending them to a camp. Jacob and Moses met many people that helped them and gave them food. Each time they thought they had found their parents they discovered that they had left for a safer place. The boys were determined and would not give up.
Based on experience of children that actually went through this horrible period in our history.
I received an ARC from NetGalley and the publisher Thomas Nelson for an honest review.

"Children of the Stars" is a powerful story of faith, hope, and the kindness of strangers prevailing over evil. The book focuses on Jacob and Moses Stein, Jewish brothers living in Nazi-occupied Paris during WWII; having already fled to France from Germany as a family.. Their parents had headed to southern France to try to find a safe place for the family, leaving the boys with their aunt Judith. However, early in the story, the boys are rounded up with thousands of other Jews, some French citizens, other refugees, and taken to the velodrome in Paris [an event that actually happened]. After some harrowing experiences, including abusive behavior by one of the gendarme, they manage to escape the velodrome and make it back to Aunt Judith's apartment. Judith is gone, but Jacob finds her suitcase, which includes letters from their parents, indicating their plans to head to South America without the boys, hoping to be able to send for them later. The boys decide to head to Valence, the town from which the letters were posted, in hopes of finding their parents before they sail for Argentina.

The book focuses on their journey, which is fraught with peril, but during which they are aided by numerous individuals who risk their lives to the help the Steins and other refugees. The author does a good job of portraying the risks that Jews and other refugees faced in trying to escape from the Nazis, the risks faced by those who assisted them, and the tough choices faced by many French citizens and officials, some who choose to collaborate with the Nazis for their own survival or because of agreement with their views, and others who choose to resist in small or large ways. While the Steins were a fictional creation, some of the characters in the book, in particular Pastor Andre Trocme and his wife Magda, Daniel Trocme, and many of the residents of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, were real people and the Trocmes' and others in this small remote village did help shelter thousands of refugee such as the Steins (who were in the village for a short period in the course of the story). While historical fiction routinely utilizes real life people with whom the fictional characters interact, the tendency is for the real life people to be names that readers familiar with that historical time period would recognize. The author's decision to utilize the real story of this village and its residents, which does not appear to be well known, adds a strength and more personal touch to the story.

One of the best parts of the book is the growth of Jacob and Moses. Both boys had some awareness of what was going on in France and other parts of Europe, including discrimination against the Jewish populations, but neither one knew or fully understood what was happening around them. However, they are forced to grow up quickly, especially Jacob, as the older brother, who feels an extra responsibility to protect Moses. On their travels, they meet people who take advantage of them, but they also meet or are guided to a variety of strangers who are willing to provide food, temporary shelter, and assistance on their journey. In their actions and interactions, the reader is able to see the boys become more "world wise" and develop the beliefs and virtues that will guide their later lives.

At one point in the story, Moses asks Jacob why people want to take them away and what did they do to cause this hatred towards the Jews. Jacob mentions some of the common excuses for hating the Jews -- killing Christ, having a lot of money -- but when Moses mentions that they did nothing to Christ and they did not have a lot of money or a fancy home, Jacob responds, "No, but once people begin to hate, they stop asking questions. Stop using their brains. They just look down on other people." That is a great description of the virus of hate.

I received a copy of the e-book via NetGalley in exchange for a review.

This is the story of 2 Jewish brothers who flee capture after their aunt is killed. They are trying to get to their parents. They meet up with resistance workers who help them. They got to the place where their parents were, only to find they've moved again. They get more help ...

Children of the Stars is a historical fiction novel. It is about two German boys Jacob 12 and Moses 7. They are separated from their parents. Fighting to reunite with them they cross two countries, an ocean during World War Ii.
Many times they barely escape with their lives and other times they are barely able to escape German soldiers wanting to send them to the camps.
What makes this an interesting and heartwarming story is all the strangers that put their lives on the line to help these children reach their goal. The goal of being reunited with their parents.
People of the French Resistance were ready and willing to help no matter the consequences. The children in the story may be fiction but so many of the places and people are real.
This is especially a story of hope, strength, courage, fortitude and preserverance. Definitely worth reading!

This was a heartrending story of two brothers separated from their parents during the early 1940s sent to live with their aunt where it was assumed they would be safe. In this historical fiction about the holocaust, the boys encountered both the kind and unkind people during their travel in their search for their parents. What they've encountered was horrific, but the kind souls that stepped in to help gave hope for good-hearted human beings. I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for the ARC.

This beautiful story has all the feels! It broke my heart to read about families broken apart and children left all alone in a world of evil. But the book shines with the brightness of kindness. Jacob and Moses go through many adventures and some struggles in trying to be reunited with their parents and meet beautiful people along the way!

Children of the Stars is an important tale of two Jewish brothers and their journey across Europe and later across the Atlantic Ocean in a search of their parents. It is a heartbreaking but full of hope story of survival, love, and sacrifice during the harrowing times of WW2 and Holocaust.

I think any story about Holocaust is an important story to know. Even though both main characters, Jacob and Moses, are fictional, their courageous journey tells a story of many children during WW2 and their struggle to survive and reunite with their families. However, reading this book I found myself a little distracted and not as emotionally affected, as I would hope so. Yes, I rooted for Jacob and Moses, but I did not feel emotionally connected to them. Something was missing it the way both characters where presented in this story, and maybe if the author spend more time on developing his characters than on the plot itself, which was moving quite fast in my opinion, I would have been able to “feel” more and to build an emotional attachment to them.

This is my second book by Mario Escobar, and I am definitely looking forward to reading more books by him.

Thank you NetGalley, Thomas Nelson publisher, and the author for providing me with an ARC copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

This engrossing book is a testament to the spirit of hope and manifestation of love for mankind.

Jacob and Moses’ parents, having emigrated from Germany with the onslaught of WWII, leave them with their aunt while they seek work first in southern France and then Argentina. The children are rounded up and taken to the Velodrome d’Hiver, as were 13,000 other Jewish citizens. Through a sequence of luck and help of others, they escape not only the Velodrome but also series of other close calls. Eventually, they make their way to the town in France to where their parents have emigrated, only to find that they were on their way to Argentina. Again, with assistance and luck, they make their way to Le Chambon -sur-lignon.
It is here where we are introduced to historically real characters who did in fact welcome and assist many refugees. Eventually, the brothers realize they must head out on their own to make their way to Argentina. Again, with the help of others as well as luck, they are on their way to being reunited.

There are many stories of good people helping during the atrocity that was the Holocaust.
Jacob and Moses story seems to be a compendium of many of those actions which made the overall action seem a bit implausible. Yet, that did not deter from this compelling narrative.

To paraphrase a quote from the book, you can choose fear or love; when you choose fear, you make all the wrong decisions. This book is truly a cautionary tale for our times

Children of the Stars
by Mario Escobar
Thomas Nelson--FICTION
You Like Them You Are Auto-Approved
Thomas Nelson
Historical Fiction
Read an Excerpt
Pub Date 25 Feb 2020 | Archive Date 30 Apr 2020

I have read many books of this genre in the past few years, and I am getting tougher on the ratings. This ARC was provided to me by Thomas Nelson and Net Galley. I thought that many of the situations were just too convenient and easily solved. It was not a memorable book for me hence the rating.

I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley.

This is a very emotional story about two young brothers whose parents had to flee Paris to avoid the Nazis. The boys were supposed to be staying with their aunt but were forced to leave the city or be captured. This historical novel follows their difficult journey as they try to reconnect with their parents. It shows the support they received from many caring strangers.

The book highlights the true story of the sacrifices and compassion of the people who rescued more than 5000 Jewish and non-Jewish children during the Holocaust. For its actions, the village, Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, was named Righteous Among the Nations by the State of Israel. Their story is a fascinating piece of history.

I recieved an ARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. I loved this book and will recommend it often!

I received a complimentary copy of this book from #NetGalley and #ThomasNelsonFiction. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I was interested in reading this book for a number of reasons. I knew that story centred around WW2 which is always of interest to me and the cover captivated me. My congratulations go out to the artist who captured the idea of two young boys on the run. Lastly, I have read another book by this author Auschwitz Lullaby and very much enjoyed it. The author is from Spain and the version that I have read is a translation. I believe that Gretchen Abernathy did an excellent job in her translation.

For some reason when I started reading this book I did not immediately make the connection that the stars referred to in the title were the yellow stars that all Jewish people living under Nazi control were forced to wear. Apparently, they were called “children of the yellow star”. The following quote stood out to me: “ To Moses, stars were the lights that God had created so that night would not swallow everything up. Yet the world now seemed orphaned of stars, dark and cold like the wardrobe where he would hide to trick his parents and from which he always jumped out as soon as possible so the immense blackness did not devour him completely.”

This particular story was set in France for a good part of the novel and was inspired by a trip that the author took with is family to the town of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon. This town was known as one that did all that it could to rescue refugees and to hide the Jewish people who came to their doorsteps. The trip impressed upon the author the value of human life and the importance of never giving up. As I write this, I can’t help but think of all the refugees currently on the road to somewhere and wonder if people today would be willing to do what the people of this town chose to do during the war.

Many of the people mentioned in the book from this area did indeed exist and documentation supports the actions described in the story. The two main characters, brothers Jacob and Moses Stein, were fictional but represent the experiences of real children who were forced to fend for themselves in travels across wartime Europe in order to survive.

The story begins as Eleazar and Jana Stein bid a tearful farewell to their two young sons Jacob and Moses leaving them in the care of their aunt Judith. Judith was too old to leave and Eleazar and Jana believed that they needed to seek out a safe place for the boys before taking them on the road. They thought that Paris would be safe. They were wrong.

Jacob was the elder, ready to be studying for his bar-mitzvah although his family had not been religious until they arrived in Paris and began living with their aunt. Moses was only eight years old and still very dependent on his mother’s care. Jacob took on the role of caregiver in her absence and always did his best to look out for his brother. In July of 1942, buses arrived at their apartment building with the local French gendarmes to round up all the Jewish people and transport them to the Vel D’hiv, a velodrome well known to the people of Paris. Thus begins the journey of these two boys.

Their journey was not an easy one, with multiple challenges along the way as the boys did their best to find and reach their parents. There were moments though when I felt it was easier than what people would have actually faced at the time. It does though show that there were many people who defied the laws of the time to assist those in need in making their way to safety. It also points out the importance of family and the desire that each individual faces to be with their own people – even if it means going with them to face inevitable death. My hope would be that this book would capture the interest of readers and lead them to do some more research to learn the stories of the real people in this book and others like them. There are so many refugees in the world today. They may be fleeing from different evils than these boys faced but it still seems so hard for many of them to achieve a place of safety in the arms of their families.

"I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own."
This begins in the summer of 1941 as a Jewish family is fleeing the encroaching Nazi terror. The parents were able to secure a voyage to South America but could not procure tickets for their two sons, Jacob at 10 and Moses at 8. So they sent their children to an aunt in Paris where the Nazis had intervened but there was no sequestering Jews. That quickly changed as the boys were sent to the Parisian velodrome along with thousands of other Jews. The book continues as the boys escape and begin their long journey to find their parents in South America. They were able to find help along the way, although there were a number of close calls when they were almost killed.

Though quite young, they learned some important life lessons. "Fear is an irrational anguish. Once firmly rooted in the human heart, it stays until destruction is complete." And - "Life is about giving your soul for the outcasts of the land, those the world rejects and denies even the right to live."

The two boys are fictitious characters but sadly, the story about them is based on the experience of real children who were hidden and shuffled away from the gendarmes and Nazis onto safer places. Quite an eye opener and a page turner.

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Sorry, but I was not able to finish this book. It was too unreal for me right from the beginning, 12 year old Jacob’s actions defied even an adult’s , never mind a 12 year old child.
Thanks NetGalley, the publisher and the author for the advanced copy.

Jacob and Moses flee through France after they escape a deportation dragnet in Paris in 1942. They are searching for their parents who had gone into hiding in Valence a year before, leaving them with their aunt in Paris, with the assumption that no one would go after the kids. What follows is a heart-wrenching search for their parents, and a story of survival despite the odds stacked up against them.
I love Mario Escobar’s writing style, it is both simple and deeply beautiful, a mix that helps keep the narrative flowing but still makes you stop at times to savor the delicate wording of a sentence. I was excited to read this book as I grew up near Lyon and Valence, surrounded by the mountains where the presence of the maquis is still felt today. While I enjoyed the story, it wasn’t exactly as brilliant as I was expecting it to be. I ended up racing through it too fast, just because I was invested in the boys’ story, but felt that there wasn’t enough to pull me down and sit still for a minute.
I also felt that there was too much naivety in the novel. Granted, it is written through the boys eyes, and at 12/13 and 8/9, they are still young and innocent to the evils of the world. However, it’s the naivety of the adults that strikes me a slightly incredulous. The children’s parents escape Nazi Germany and settle in France, but refuse to think that the kids would be in danger in Nazi-occupied Paris? In 1941 things were already pretty dire in Paris, and surely the parents would have witnessed what the Germans did to Jewish children in Germany? If their aunt was unregistered why were the children registered as Jews? I also thought that for a 12/13 year old Jacob was a little naive too.

I however decided about a quarter of the way through the book to stop questioning the details and to just enjoy the prose and the story. Because ultimately Children of the Stars is a story of survival, endurance, love, and that despite the evil that may surround us there will always be shimmers of light, beacons of hope.

France has a very interesting and extremely difficult history when it comes to WW2. On the one hand there were collaborators who took advantage of the hatred the Nazis brought with them, on the other there were the amazing amount of people who did everything in their power to resist against the Germans and help those persecuted. There were many villages like Vassieux-en-Vercors were the populations were massacred in retaliation by German troops after the Résistance uprising in 1944, or like Chambon sur Lignon where thousands of Jews were sheltered during the war (this area appears in the book). I found that Mario Escobar manages to evoke this wide variety of human reactions and thoughts in his novel, as we see so many different characters react in so many different ways to the children. This was the part of the novel that I appreciated the most: the way the author portrays the array of characters who come in contact with the children and how they help and/or try to harm them. This is a solid 3.5 stars for me!

Tomorrow is the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. I am grateful to writers such as Mario Escobar who continue to write about, and educate people on, the atrocities that happened during the second world war. We must never forget.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book in return for an honest review.

Since I have read so many WWII books in the past couple years, I have tried to up my game on my choices of reading material of this genre and was certainly looking forward to this read of the two young lads. Hence, I wouldn’t say this was a bad book, it was just not a truly memorable one.
The description tells the story so I won’t go back over it. As expected for two young boys taking off to find their parents and covering many miles, you can envision they run into quite a few bad circumstances, trials and tribulations. But along the way they meet some fine and caring souls that help them with their generosity, love, and risking their lives. This book does make you believe in the goodness of people in unfortunate and horrendous conditions.
I did feel some of the boy’s adventures were too convenient and hard to believe. As for the parents, in the dire circumstances of war, I don’t know what I would have done, but it would have been so difficult to leave the children as they did and travel so far away and continue moving farther.
I thank the publisher for giving me the opportunity to receive this book from Thomas Nelson through NetGalley. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. This one gets 4****’s.

Jacob and Moses parents thought their children were safe with their Aunt. Soon no place was safe, and it became harder to find someone to trust. The thing that kept them going was the fact they would always be there for each other. As they make a run for their lives, they come across people that are willing to help them (at a great risk to themselves.)

At the end the author states in Clarifications from History. “Jacob and Moses Stein themselves are fictitious characters, but the story about them is based on the experiences of real children who traveled all over Europe during the dark years of World War II. In a way, the brothers are a tribute both to all those who managed to escape the bombs and the cruel grasp of the Nazis, and to all those who did not – to those whose innocent lives were devoured by the insatiable hatred of fanatical, inhumane humans.”

The author brilliantly takes readers on a frightening adventure. Even more chilling knowing the events were based on experiences of real children. I admired the courage and strength of these two young boys and their determination to stay together on the mission. Hold onto your heart as you read this amazing story of two brothers Jacob and Moses determined to have a family re-union. This would make a great book for your next book club pick. There is so much to discuss.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher, Netgalley. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising”

Nora St. Laurent
TBCN Where Book Fun Begins! www.bookfun.org
The Book Club Network blog www.psalm516.blogspot.com

What a wonderful book written about such an awful part of the history of our world. This novel tells the story of two young Jewish boys living in Paris under German occupation and their struggle to join their parents in South America. Through a series of circumstances, their parents have fled Paris to Argentina, leaving the boys with an aunt. Their plan is to send for the boys once they are settled. Their long journey across France and into Spain during wartime, the adventures they have and the people they meet, reaffirms the humanity in all of us. Although fiction, this story is based on actual places and events during WW II.

This is a tale of exile reminding us that kindness and humanity will radiate in the season of sorrow.

Another great story set in World War II time. The historical content is very good and the story line keeps your attention. I would recommend it. Thanks to the publisher through netgalley for an advanced copy. This is my own opinion.