Annika Thor

The war is over! Stephie Steiner is celebrating with her friend May when she runs into her former crush, Sven. She is in her last year of high school and is planning to work for a couple of years in order to afford medical school. Her sister Nellie is aging out of school (only six years of compulsory education) and is still living with Auntie Alma and her family. With the end of the war, Stephie begins looking for their father, with whom they have not corresponded since he was deported from Theresienstadt. Lots of transitions in the offing—where will the girls end up?

Although I didn't care for the reappearance of Sven, I thought the book tied up loose ends nicely. One theme running through the last couple of books was how Sweden, who had been tacitly aiding Germany through the early part of the war, changed its tune once it became apparent that Germany was losing. Whereas the first two books had an Anne of Green Gables feel, the last two books deal with more mature topics: teenage pregnancy, unwanted sexual advances, and severe mental illness. An interesting quartet of books covering various experiences of child refugees in Sweden during WWII.… (more)

Stephie Steiner is in her last year of grammar school and living with May and her family in Goteburg. Her parents have been transferred to Theresienstadt, but Stephie is able to send care packages. Nellie grows even more distant as her ties to her Swedish foster family strengthen. In this, the third novel in the Faraway Island quartet, Stephie faces more adult problems, making the book more appropriate to older teens. I liked this one more than the last, as it focuses more on the war and less on the teen crush. I'm looking forward to the last novel to see how the author brings the story to a close.… (more)

The Lily Pond continues the story of Stephie Steiner, which began in A Faraway Island. Stephie is now attending grammar school in Göteborg, Sweden on scholarship. She is rooming with a wealthy family who rented her foster family's house during the summer. Despite the altruism with which they took her in, the doctor and his wife are disrespectful, sometimes treating her as hired help. The bright spot is their son, Sven, a budding socialist with whom Stephie imagines a relationship. This second installment in the series is full of teenage intrigue and angst, and the war plays only a marginal role as Stephie's parent continue to try and find a way out of Vienna.… (more)

This is what I would call a young adult book with wide appeal. It's the story of two Jewish sisters, Stephie and Nellie Steiner, who are sent to Sweden from Vienna in the summer of 1939. Their parents are trying to get visas to leave for America, and the girls expect to join them for the trip in three months, maybe six. Upon arriving in Göteborg, they are told that they will not be in the same household, but that they will be hosted in the same village on an island. Seven-year-old Nellie is placed with in a cheerful family with two young children, and twelve-year-old Stephie with an older couple further out of the village, "at the end of the world." Stephie's host mother is stern and her husband is away a lot of the time with a fishing crew, but when he's home, he is sympathetic and kind. As Stephie tries to fit in and behave as expected, she is faced with challenges at home, at school, and in making friends. As the war begins in Europe, her fears for her parents increases. Will they be able to get visas?

I enjoyed this novel, the first in a quartet about the Steiner sisters. It reminded me of [Anne of Green Gables]. Like Anne, Stephie feels very different from those around her: she doesn't speak the language, she's Jewish, from an urban city, and without her parents. Her host mother is very reminiscent of Miss Cuthburt and her husband plays a role like Matthew's. But [A Faraway Island] is more somber, with the war looming in the background and fears for her parents running as an undercurrent through her life. I enjoyed this story and have ordered the next one in the series.… (more)