Title: Hide and Seek
Author: Ida Vos
Publisher: Penguin Group
Year of Publication: 1991
Number of Pages: 132
Point of View:
The narrator’s point of view is 3rd person.
Setting:
The story takes place in Holland around World War 2. These years are important because of all the things that happened in World War 2, including one hundred thousand Dutch Jews being killed in German concentration camps. The story switches between parts of Holland throughout the story.
Main Characters:
Rachel Hartog is the main character. She is around 12 years old when all of this is happening to her. Rachel starts off in a mixed school class with Jews and non-Jews, but as the story progresses she is no longer aloud to go to school with her non-Jewish friends which cause her to fall back academically. Then later on she isn’t allowed to sit on public benches, go out after or before certain times, shop at certain times, or even have or ride a bicycle which she had received for her birthday. Rachel is motivated by her desire to take care of her sister and keep her family a whole, because during the war her family is all she had, she didn’t have the privilege of doing things non-Jewish could.
Esther Hartog isn’t as big of a character as Rachel but still plays an important part in this book. Esther is roughly 8 or 9 and is sister the Rachel Hartog. Esther is important because when Esther and her sister have to flee from the parents because it wasn’t safe to stay with them, Esther was all Rachel had at that time; she was basically Rachel’s companion. Being there for Rachel through out the story is what I think motivated her.
Strengths and Weaknesses of Rachel:
Strengths: Although Rachel was physically strong, she was very intelligent, brave, and listened well to instructions. Even though she had to drop to a lower school with a lesser education level she was still very smart and cunning. She was also brave because she had to leave her home, and then leave her...