Book Review: Sabel by Suzanne Wouda

 

Note: This book isn't available in English (yet).

 This one has been on my TBR for a while. 

Max is a young Jewish boy during World War II who is captured and taken to the Vught concentration camp. Here, he clings to his past and in particular the memory of his cat Sabel in hopes of things getting better.

This was definitely a quick read, but it was really good. It's told partially out of order as we get snippets from Max's time in the camp (present day) and the events leading up to this. Both narratives are very gripping and you just feel so bad for this kid and his family, and of course the other kids he meets at the camp. Some of them may be a bit bully-ish, but none of them are truly bad kids.

The characters are simple enough but still well-written and I quickly got attached to Max especially. His relationship with his family and the other kids and of course Sabel was also well done and felt believable. 

The book is for a younger audience, however I feel it handles its dark subject matter appropriately. Not everything is directly outright stated as to not overwhelm the young target audience, but it's still a really dark book and I think it handles it's subject matter well considering the age range. And older readers will definitely catch onto the implied darker elements as well. 

Spoilers for the next paragraph: For readers who are just here to read about the cat you might be disappointed, as the plot threat of what happened to Sabel is never resolved, but honestly I didn't mind this as this really is Max's story and (spoilers for the ending) his own story is unresolved as well. So it makes sense that we didn't figure out what happened to Sabel here. The cat on the cover was definitely what drew me into the story at first as I love reading about animals, but I was so quickly engrossed into Max's character and what was happening to him that I didn't mind not learning about the fate of the cat. The focus is where it should be and I think that's appropriate here. In a lesser book I might be let down by this plot threat being unresolved, but here I think it actually accentuates the already depressing ending.

 So yeah, very solid historical fiction for children about World War II. I'd definitely wait with reading this to any children until they're a bit older, but this is a good book for slightly older kids who can handle the dark subject matter. It's really emotionally gripping and has well-written characters and character relationships.

Rating: 4/5