Names in a jar is a heartbreaking read geared toward thirteen- to eighteen-year-olds but I believe it can be enjoyed by adults as well.
Imprisoned in the Warsaw Ghetto with her older sister, Lina, and their father.is Ana.
Casual times at home spent relaxing and reading are long gone.
The author does an excellent job of portraying life as it was in the ghetto and the harsh mistreatment suffered by the prisoners there.
The characters were believable and the storyline enjoyable. Incredible fortitude shown by the sisters during the bleakest of times.


Pub Date 14 Sep 2021
I was given a complimentary copy of this book.
All opinions expressed are my own.

Difficult to read because of a tough subject manner handled truthfully and with searing emotion appropriate for a younger teen audience. A good part of a robust collection on this subject.

This is such a compelling story. I loved following Anna's story as a 12 year old travelling the sewers in a Warsaw ghetto to hiding and growing up with a Catholic family while her sister Lina is imprisoned in a holocaust camp.

I loved the connection, love, and family values between Lina and Anna. I don't have a sister to understand a sister's love, but you could feel their love come through the story.

As always I love historical fiction books set in the WWII time period. The back and forth POV's between and Anna and Lina as time progresses keeps the book moving smoothly.

The author has done a magnificent job in gathering facts and data to the historical time period.

Anna Krawitz lives in Warsaw, Poland with her father and her older sister, Lina. The family enjoys a comfortable life and Anna has plenty of time to read books about science and anatomy from her father’s bookshop. But when Hitler’s army invades Poland, life for the Krawitz family quickly changes.

Locked into the Warsaw Ghetto, each family member must learn how to survive and care for people thrust into the same horrible circumstances. When Lina and Anna end up custodians for a baby boy, Lina and her father make the difficult decision to send the two children to live with a Catholic family in the Polish countryside.

The woman who arranges the escape promises to write their old names and their new names on slips of paper and bury them inside a jar in her garden. The names in the jar are the only physical link tying the two sisters together as Hitler’s war on the Jews tears them apart.

Lina eventually ends up at the Treblinka death camp, where she discovers she had more courage than she ever imagined. Anna finds a haven with the baby in the home of a childless couple who love them like their own, but life turns out equally traumatic for her.

As the war draws to a close, both girls hope the names in a jar will lead them back to each other.

Why I Loved This Book

This is one of those books filled with a hard story (drawn from the pages of history) we all need to read lest we ever forget. The Holocaust shows what happens when good people do nothing to stand up against tyranny until it’s too late. Let us never forget.

I would hesitate to have a younger student read this book. The rape scene isn’t too graphic, but it could be traumatic for younger readers. The sheer violence perpetrated against the Jews boggles the mind. Once again, while not overly graphic, the reader may struggle to read through those scenes. The author strives to show how not all German soldiers were evil—and while many were, others struggled to survive by doing things that went against their conscience. References to lesbianism and premarital sex also earn it a rating for older students.

Ultimately, Names in a Jar is the story of resilience, survival, courage, family, forgiveness, and hope. I would read it WITH 12-15 year-olds, but not just hand it to them to read on their own.

What drew me to Names in a Jar was the fact that Jennifer Gold used Irene Sendler as the inspiration for this fictional account of Warsaw, Poland and the Nazi occupation, and that as a young person, Leon Uris' Mila 18, the well-researched novel about the Warsaw Ghetto and the remarkable uprising, was an unforgettable experience.
Sendler's courage, initiative, and ingenuity intrigued me, and I wanted to try this fictional account based on Sendler's activities.

Two sisters, Anna and Lina, and their father are rounded up and imprisoned in the Warsaw Ghetto where starvation and typhoid take a terrible toll. Twelve-year-old Anna joins a group of children who make their way in and out of the Ghetto, usually through the sewers, in order to get food and medicine.

The story alternates between Anna and Lina. Anna and infant Dov are smuggled out by Jolanta (the nom de guerre used by Irene Sendler) and taken in by a Polish family.

Lina stays in the ghetto, but becomes involved in forging papers for the underground network to give the children being smuggled out new names and backgrounds. Eventually, Lina and Masha, another young woman who exhibits great courage, end up in Treblinka.

Both sisters hold out hope for reunion, struggling with the threats that could end their lives. Will the jars in Jolanta's garden help reunite the sister, or any of those 2,500 smuggled Jewish children, with their families?

Although the author never goes into graphic detail at any point, there are some difficult and unpalatable incidents that should be expected in a book set in this period and location. Gold handles all of these incidents well, including just enough to give a sense of the horror faced by Polish Jews and the Polish resistance and still be in keeping for young adults.

NetGalley/Second Story Press
YA/Historical Fiction. Sept. 14, 2021. Print length: 336 pages.

This was extremely emotional and beautiful. It felt so real and raw. I also like the WWII fiction, specifically Holocaust historical fiction, is coming to the YA market.

The cover is what drew me to this book. I love reading middle grade and that was my initial impression. However, its geared more for teens and YA. Even though Anna is only 12 years old when this story begins we get to watch her become a teen and grow up before her time.

Though the eyes of these two sisters, Anna and Lina, a clear picture is shown of what life was like before being expelled to the Warsaw Ghetto and what transpired there. At times heartbreaking to read and maybe for a younger audience it might be a little much, it isn't graphic but you get a clear picture what takes place.

One of the things I love about reading HF is learning, and once again I was education. From the Treblinka Camp to Irena Sendler (Jolenta is based on her and I would have loved to read more) to Catholics taking in Jewish children, unknown parts of that era to me.

Names in a Jar is a story of survival, heartache and family. One I recommend but don't let the whimsical cover deceive you.

My thanks to Second Story Press (via Netgalley) for a e-arc in exchange for a honest review. Look for this book on Sept 14th.

Actual rating - 3.75
Note: Mature readers only (CW for rape)

Told through the eyes of two Jewish sisters, Names in a Jar is a story of their experiences during World War II. This is a story that I needed to sit with for a bit after finishing it. My rating kept changing as I read, and I needed a minute to figure out my thoughts. There were elements that I really liked. I loved Anna's character. I thought she was a well-written strong-willed and intelligent girl.

I also appreciated that we got to see Irena Sendler's work - she did so much for so many children, yet I feel like no one knows about her. I do wish we could have gotten more of her in the story though.

I loved the focus on the resistance workers. So many people fought back and worked behind the scenes to rescue people and sabotage the Nazis, and I love to see that at work. It's easy for a story like this to fall into the helpless victims' trope. I appreciate that this novel didn't do that. We can see all the ways, big and small, that people fought back.

There were moments I felt were a very realistic portrayal, and there were moments that I've seen done better in other books on this time period. That's the problem with this kind of story though. The market is very saturated with Holocaust literature, so if you are going to do that, it needs to stand out in some way. I'm not sure that this book did that.

I think if you've not read much about this period in history, this story could be a good starting point.

Thank you to Netgalley for the free e-arc in exchange for a review.

Names in a Jar by Jennifer Gold is a powerful work of historical fiction that weaves a story of one family's endurance from the terrifying historical facts of the Holocaust. In Warsaw, Poland, Anna and Lina Krawitz are growing up in the happy safety of their home and their father's bookshop. In alternating points of view, they show the range of experiences Jewish people endured throughout the war. Before 1939, their life is full of friends, both Jews who share their faith, and others of different faiths, but when Hitler's forces attack and relocate all Jews to the ghetto, their life changes forever. In the ghetto, they must change to survive. Twelve-year-old Anna uses her courage, intelligence, and scientific mindset to help the family find food and supplies, while Lina, 19, struggles to face the reality of the ghetto outside their cramped quarters. When people begin dying of typhoid fever and their chances for survival grow smaller, Lina adapts as well, growing into a woman of courage and resilience. As the war progresses, Anna and Lina must face different challenges and choices, and through their dual perspectives, readers see the efforts of partisans, the opportunity for hiding with courageous families in the countryside, the horrors of Treblinka, and the cruelty of the German invaders. Driving all of their actions is Lina's promise to find Anna after the war, but as the Germans' power increases, her promise becomes harder to keep, and the sisters are threatened with the loss of the one thing they have preserved, their hope of being together.

As a teacher, I love the commitment Gold has made to historical accuracy. From the treatment of Jews in the ghetto, to the resistance movement, to the dehumanizing cruelty of Treblinka, Gold has remained focused on history rather than speculative or revisionist ideas about this period, Children did indeed use the sewers under the Warsaw ghetto as smuggling highways, homosexuals were imprisoned and killed by the Reich, and brave people did risk their lives to shelter and save Jewish children from death. These are the stories we must preserve, and Gold's story adds another important volume to the canon of Holocaust literature.

Additionally, Gold's dual point of view format allows readers to see different aspects of the Holocaust while it also builds tension. Readers see through their own words the loss the sisters feel at their separation and the power of their hope to reunite someday. Both characters tell their stories clearly and simply without deep introspection. As a lover of character-driven works, I would have enjoyed reading about their growth and emotion more directly, through their thoughts and inner dialogue in addition to their actions and words. Their experiences were life-shattering, and while their actions show their growth, I would have enjoyed seeing that growth in their thoughts as well.

As a novel, Names in a Jar draws readers in with interesting dual points of view and maintains interest with steady pacing and rising stakes. Its devotion to historical accuracy is so important in today's world of speculative and alternative historical novels, and Gold's story belongs with others like The Book of Lost Names and Resistance to give readers a multi-faceted view of the Holocaust.

Set in WWII Poland, this book is heart crushing, sobering and heartwarming with themes of hope and courage. What people went through during that time seems unfathomable to us. The main characters, Anna and Lina, are sisters and young children at the beginning. They narrate the story in their perspectives, both of which are utterly horrific. As Jews they are forced from their homes to live in the Warsaw Ghetto. They lose everything including their Papa's bookshop and become accustomed to the awfulness of death. Begging for and smuggling food is commonplace. The descriptions are so good I could feel the pervasiveness of the despair.

It doesn't end there. Lina is sent to the horrendous Treblinka camp while Anna is smuggled outside Warsaw with an orphan baby in her care. Both girls are desperate to find each other which is one reason for their determination to survive. "Liberation" isn't what survivors expect.

So many things to like about this important book. It is not enjoyable and not meant to be. But in my opinion this history is crucial for us to know, including those who are teens. The plaster cracks analogy is lovely and striking and stands out in my mind. So many things do such as the name changes, Anna's passion for science and anatomy as a young child (I can relate!), the clever title and the ending. The author loosely based the characters of Anna and Lina on two concentration camp escapees and the details could very well have happened to others.

Those who are keen to learn more about history, especially WWII, should read this book. I would recommend it for the ages of 14-15+ as there are descriptions of atrocities inappropriate for younger kids.

My sincere thank you to Second Story Press and NetGalley for the privilege of reading this difficult but remarkable book.

This was a wonderful book for kids 14+.

There are a lot of Holocaust books out there. What made Names in a Jar stand out is that it was told from alternating perspectives of two sisters - one who managed to escape the ghetto and be housed by Catholics and one who suffered in the ghetto and Treblinka. These were two very real perspectives that occurred and they were told with heart. Gold made sure that readers felt connected to Anna and Lina, to the people in their lives, and to the tragedies that were forced upon them. I was also very interested to read in the backmatter that the character of Jolenta was based on Irena Sendler who saved 2,500 Jewish children. This was a beautiful story that brings a side of the Holocaust that not all understand.

Fighting to stay alive while losing so much and so many, starving, and yet there’s hope. Hope the war will end, hope you’ll find those you’ve been separated from and hope that you’ll be able to move past what you went through.

This novel is told through the eyes of 2 sisters and what they had to deal with being Jews in WWII. Emotional at times and some of it loosely based on true events. Very good read and would recommend!

This dual perspective WWII-Holocaust story will catch the reader's emotions right from the start. Lina and Anna are Jewish sisters trapped in this unrelenting time period. Through their bravery and goal of some day being reunited, the sisters work to survive the many atrocities of WWII. They find hope, love and family in places they never expect.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. I really enjoyed this book. going back and forth between the characters was done extremely well, nothing felt overly choppy or forced like this writing style sometimes does. My only real complaint is that it felt like someone of the side characters were not able to be fully developed.

Thanks to the publisher for providing an eARC of Names in a Jar in exchange for an honest review.

My only real complaint with this one was that I wanted more. Names in a Jar follows sisters Anna and Lina from both of their perspectives after Anna is smuggled out of their ghetto to live in secret with a host family and Lina is left behind and sent to a concentration camp. Anna and Lina were both beautiful characters to follow and I love how they both managed to find ways to maintain their unique strengths in their situations. I do wish this was a bit longer particularly so that character relationships (mainly Lina's with the other women in the concentration camp) could have been better built up, but I also know that if that happened this book would have broken me even more than it already did.

A beautifully told story of two sisters and their fight for survival during WWII. I enjoyed the back and forth perspectives as it highlighted each sister’s strength and determination. Mature teens and adults that enjoy historical fiction will be fans of this title.

Wow! Amazing!!! I loved this book! I read it in 24 hrs. It was so good. I didn't want to stop reading. I loved the characters and really enjoyed the sisters point of views. I cried in the middle and I cried at the end. But most importantly, I learned something. Something about the past, something about myself, and the importance of the future. I will never look at a Jar the same way again.
Thank you to Second Story Press and Netgalley.

This was a very good book. Jennifer Gold does an excellent job of painting a picture of what life was like in World War Two. Especially for Jewish people and the very real struggle they went through. This book can be uncomfortable at times, but I also believe that it is impossible to read a story about the Holocaust and not be disturbed. Jennifer Gold also seamlessly goes back and forth between the two sisters and tells their story. My one criticism is that several chapters seemed to end with “I didn’t know that would be the last time I saw...” I appreciate that there is a lot of death in this novel ( its the holocaust) but perhaps rephrasing that sentence every once in a while so it didn’t feel overly redundant.
Overall, excellent book with beautiful writing. Would recommend to a friend.

A wonderful teen-(older) young reader book set in WWII in a Warsaw ghetto, this book does an excellent job at portraying the harsh conditions experienced by the people who were forced to live there by the Nazis. The characters were believable and enjoyable, and I liked the medical part of it as well. Overall, I really recommend this book and am glad I got to read it!