Let Sleeping Dogs Lie
Ages: 12 and up
Pages: 208
List Price: $16.95
Cover: Hardcover
Published: 10/1/2007
ISBN: 1-932425-84-5
ISBN-13: 978-1-932425-84-0
Johanna's family owns the largest clothing store in town. Her grandfather founded it and built it up with his own hands--at least that's the family legend. But when Johanna travels to Israel on a class project in 1995, she finds out that the Lewin family originally owned the store. She learns that in the course of “aryanization" during the Nazi regime, her grandfather legally acquired the company according to the anti-Semitic laws of the Third Reich. Joanna is worried: her family's wealth is obviously founded on injustice. Should she keep silent, or can she wake the sleeping dogs?
Her grandfather's sudden death follows soon after her discovery, and so she embarks on a further investigation, discovering that he was an enthusiastic Nazi supporter! Johanna confronts her aggressively defensive father, their arguments escalate, and it almost comes to a falling-out. Yet, it is an eye-opening fight and marks Johanna's entrance into adulthood as she is left with many questions and with her own life to sort out.
Awards
- Selected for the 2008 USBBY-CBC Outstanding International Books List
- A Sydney Taylor Honor Book for Teen Readers
Reviews
"This story, written by a German author, gives a poignant picture of the issues modern Germans are dealing with as they come to terms with their national history."
—KLIATT
"Pressler (Halinka), also known for editing the definitive edition of Anne Frank’s diary with Otto Frank, probes the issues here from many angles. She observes scenes closely but unobtrusively, conveying sensory images in crystalline prose, and a variety of story lines suggest the density of Johanna’s life (a boyfriend, ruptures in the family, allusions to an Israeli youth). The complex narrative structure, in which chronology takes a back seat to moment-to-moment relevance, not only allows for strategic revelation of different pivotal scenes but also reflects Johanna’s thinking as she tries to process the facts she uncovers. Pressler demands a certain sophistication from the audience; her incisive writing challenges readers to rise to meet her."
—Publishers Weekly
Voice of Youth Advocates took a look at Mirjam Pressler's
Let Sleeping Dogs Lie in its April 2008 issue:
"This moving and important novel touches on a part of the Holocaust that is not often covered. ... This wonderful story portrays a part of Germany’s past about which very few Americans think. ...[I]t is a worthy purchase for any teen fiction collection."
Let Sleeping Dogs Lie received a starred review in the January 2008 issue of
The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books:
"[T]his thoughtful and provocative volume will elicit plenty of discussion about American historical heritage as well as European, and it could therefore be an interesting partner to Mildred Taylor's Logan family saga."
Reviewer Hazel Rochman takes a look at Mirjam Pressler's
Let Sleeping Dogs Lie in the February 15, 2008 issue of
Booklist:
"There are shelves of Holocaust books about victims, perpetrators, rescuers, and bystanders; but what about those who profited from the genocide? Pressler takes a look at the question through the viewpoint of a contemporary German 18-year-old, Johanna, who is shocked to discover that her wealthy family’s prosperous clothing store was confiscated from Jewish owners and given to her Nazi grandfather more than 50 years ago. The history and the issues will spark discussion."
