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English Titles

		MARGIT: HOME FREE KATHY KACER ILLUSTRATIONS: JANET WILSON AND SHARON MATTHEWS TORONTO: PENGUIN CANADA, 2003. 87 P. (OUR CANADIAN GIRL) ISBN 0143312006 AGES 8 TO 11
Margit: Home Free Source

The Our Canadian Girl series is a collection of children's novels about young girls who are strong and bright. Home Free, part of this series, is a novel that captures just such a girl: 11-year-old Margit Freed.

It is 1944 and the Nazis occupy much of Europe including Margit's Czechoslovakia. Her father has been captured; his fate is unknown. Margit's mother knows she and Margit must leave or also risk capture. They flee to Canada. Home Free focuses on loss, identity and hope.

Margit mourns the loss of her dad and worries about what happened to him. Is he still living? Will she and her mom ever see him again?

Margit struggles with her own identity in her new adopted city, Toronto. She is Jewish and Jews are not welcome in many parts of the world. Will she be liked? Accepted? Will she look and act like young Canadian girls?

Margit holds onto hope: she has made a wonderful friend; she is learning English; and she is making a niche for herself in school. Things are better, but is there hope for her dad?

Compelling to read, the book's incise prose is supported by the quality illustrations of Janet Wilson and Sharon Matthews.

-MS