At the outbreak of World War II, 9-year-old Piri is visiting her grandmother in the Ukrainian countryside and is unable to return to her family in the Hungarian town of Beregszász. Aranka Siegal, the Piri of the narrative, finally comes home the following year but finds her life forever changed: her father is serving on the Russian front, and her mother's attempt to secure passage to America for her children fails... Food and supplies are scarce, and despite new restrictions, Rise Davidowitz maintains her family's traditional customs and tries to hold her family together until she and Iboya, Piri, Sándor and Joli are taken ... to Auschwitz in 1944 ... A sensitive portrait of a remarkable young girl and her family. --Starred / School Library Journal