the upstairs room, johanna reiss, cycle 26 , pgs. 15-27

annies neibors have gotten on a boat to america. her father wishes that he had sent his family on a boat to america too, but now it is too late. there is a sign posted on the tree in the town square now, announcing everyday more and more things that limit jews. annies father has made it a daily routine to go check that sign. her family is building a house on the outskirts of town to try to get away from the nazis who randomly search jewish houses every night. jews now have to sew yellow stars of david to their clothing everyday to show that they are jews. annie likes the stars, she thinks they are pretty.

the upstairs room, johanna reiss, cycle 25, pgs. 1-15

Annie is a six year old, jewish girl, living in winterswijk, Holland, when rumor reaches her family of a man named Hitler and his hate of Jews. she doesnt really understand what is going on. her father is constantly listening to the radio, her mother always has headaches, her oldest sister is teaching school, and her second oldest sister has a job milking cows. hitler is gathering the nazis and annie doesnt know what to make of it all.
its very interesting to hear a point of view of the holocaust from a six year olds mind. children tend to think of things very diplomatically. in the book, annie is jewish but when she hears that a jewish boy had killed a nazi, she thinks "that wasnt very nice" instead of "he deserved it, hes a nazi". annie doesnt really understand whats happening, she just wants to know why all of a sudden her friend isnt allowed to play with her anymore, then all of a sudden why she isnt allowed to go to normal school and why are the non-jewish kids chasing her and her jewish friends and yelling, "jew jew ugly mole, stick your face in a dirty hole, stick your face in a mustard pot, by tomorow jew will rot."