Bøger af Barbara Sorensen Fallick

Elizabeth and the Potato Dolly is a nostalgic look at yesteryear too precious to sweep into the dustbin of history. It is sure to charm all lovers of Americana from ages three to one hundred and three. Unique among pioneer stories with its reenactment at a living history museum, the artfully done photographs bring authenticity to the story.Elizabeth is sent to the root cellar to fetch potatoes for her Pappa's dinner. When she doesn't return promptly, her mother repeatedly calls but "Elizabeth does not answer and Elizabeth does not come." This parallelism tickles young readers as does Mama's elongated calling, "Eliiiiii-zabeth." The children become intrigued to know what has become of Elizabeth. Since the story lends itself to reenactment, it works extremely well in a venue where children in the audience can become involved as the characters in the story.

This book focuses on a little known aspect of World War II. Its characters begin in Moscow and on the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia. The female character, Valentina, goes through England and ends up as a spy in France for the Allies. The male character, Sasha, serves in the Russian Army, is captured by the Germans. Stalin declared Russian prisoners as traitors and sent no food for his prisoners. Literally starving to death, many of them saved their lives by joining what was called the Russian Liberation Army. The idea was that the Russians would fight for the Germans, and then Germans would help them liberate Russia from Stalin. Sasha also ends up in France fighting for the Germans. He is captured by the Americans. At the end of the war, Stalin insisted all Russians be repatriated back to Russia. Russians who had served in the West knew this would mean either execution or hard labor camp. Many resisted and atrocities were committed to the shame of US and English soldiers to force the Russians to repatriate. Both Valentina and Sasha manage to defect to the United States, but they are unwelcome here as it is the McCarthy era, and all Russians are suspected of being Communist spies. Valentina can live openly because she speaks English fluently without a Russian accent. Sasha is a house prisoner because he can only speak Russian. The book comes to a head when they are discovered.