Hide and Seek

I first read this book at twelve, and I believe that one of the reasons it's been so unforgettable to me is the fact that I had never read a book written in the present tense before and hadn't known a book could be written in anything but the past tense. It inspired me to use the present tense in my own writing; in this book, the present tense coupled with the tense times and situations the Hartog family must go through makes the story more compelling, immediate, haunting, and page-turning. A story written in the past tense tells us that everything has already happened, but in the present tense, we're living right in each new moment and don't know what might happen next. I didn't really take notice of this till I recently read it again for the third time, but time really does pass too quickly here; we aren't told how much time has passed between most of the events, and Rachel, who was eight years old in 1940 when the book began, is turning twelve years old in hiding when the book is only about half over. But it only makes sense; Rachel and her little sister Esther are just young children and wouldn't have the same perception of time that an older person would. A person who experienced these events as a teenager or adult would certainly tend to remember in detail how much time had passed after each important event and what all they were doing during the time periods that weren't written about, but a young child is more likely to remember things and people than specifics about the exact passage of time or every little thing that happened. And Rachel sees everything through the eyes of a child, not a mature adult who would have more perspective on these events. Though the family is happily reunited at the end (even with Rachel and Esther's maternal grandparents), the way Ida Vos and her little sister were reunited with their parents after the war, the story doesn't end there like some childrens' books on this subject might. The family still has to come to terms with all of the missing and dead friends and relatives, finding a new house, catching up in school, having to break out of habits they acquired while in hiding or in the camps (such as Rachel and Esther praying a Christian prayer before meals and their grandfather stealing old bread from garbage cans), and readjust to doing all of the things they were forbidden to do before, like ride bikes, go to school, walk around freely, go swimming, and go shopping whenever they want to. Though it's for a younger audience and thus can't go into the same harrowing detail that an adult book of this nature would, it gets the story and its impact across powerfully.

How would you like it if everything was taken away from you, and you had nothing at all, not even your own stuffed bear, and your parents taken away from you, and everywhere you go, you had to wear a yellow star indicating that you are Jewish? Well, that is exactly what happened to Rachel and her younger sister, Esther, during World War II in Holland. They had to go into hiding from the Nazis, who were trying to blow the Jews to pieces. They were forced to live in small spaces, and constantly move from one place to the next, wondering if they were going to be killed. The good thing was that they had nice and caring people living with them, and always having a solution to if the Nazis were going to kill them. Throughout the three years, they were always being judged, which really put a hole in their hearts. But they learned to deal with it because they knew that God was always with them. To see if they survive the horrible events read Hide and Seek by Ida Vos.

As a sixth grader I really enjoyed the book Hide And Seek. The story was about a little girl named Rachel who lived with her parent's and her sister. Rachel was only eight years old when the Nazis invaded Holland. And then the changes begin. Rachel coulen't go to her school any more, and she wasn't allowed to enter the park. And the Nazis took Rachel's bike away. Finally, she was forced to wear a yellow star- all because she was a Jewish girl. When the Nazis closed in, Rachel's family went into hiding, Rachel's family was moving house to house in the middle of the night. I liked this book because it was interesting.

Hi i'm a 6th grader and i want to let people know that this is a really good book.I would recomend it to lots of people.This book is about kids during the holocaust that were being killed by nazis and had to hide in peoples houses so they woulden't get killed.Once the nazis found out where they hid they would kill them and the hider with no question,then the nazis would make a grave and put them in it and barry them.

As a sixth grader at Lynnwood Intermediate I want to tell you a little bit about the book Hide and Seek. This book is about two young girls named Rachael and Esther in a country in which the Nazis were taking over.(They are sisters.) One day Rachael asked her father if they could read the newspaper like they do everyday. Her father said,"No, there are too many bad things going on that little girls shouldn't read." So, the next day Rachael and Esther went into hiding with this really nice catholic family. When the Nazis would come they would use a ladder and they would go into the attic. The last peron would knock the ladder down. I'm not going to tell you what else happened. I'm recommending this book because it has a good explination of what happened to a hidden child during the Holocaust. This book is good for ages ten and older. I really like this book because of the way they explained it. What would make this book better is if they had illustrations, and if they didn't make the chapters so short. That is why I rated this book a 9! Actually I would more likely rate this book between a nine and a ten.