The Journey Back

   

                                                        
Review by Nathan:
The Journey Back   by Johanna Reiss is a sequel to the Upstairs Room.  The main character Annie leaves the family she hid with during World War II and goes back to her family.  Her birth mom got sick and died during the war and now her dad is seeing someone.  He eventually marries Magda Vos  who is not very pleased with Annie.  Rachel, one of Annie's sisters, becomes a Christian which causes some family strife. Rachel moves away and contracts Tuberculous.  Sini, Annie's other sister, becomes a nurse and gets right back into social life.  Annie misses the Oostervelds (who she stayed with during the war.) It is not a very happy time for Annie and she must learn to cope with the changes.

This book gives good detail about locations so you can easily (for me anyway) picture where places are.  This book shows how hard it was after the war.  Something I noticed a lot in the book was how they lived with few conveniences.

Review by Grace:   
The Journey Back  is the sequel to The Upstairs Room by Johanna Reiss. The war is complete, but everything is changed. Annie and Sini go home and it's hard to say goodbye to the Oostervelds who bravely hid them. Annie's sister Rachel is now a Christian! Then father gets a new wife that Annie can not please. These add to their struggles. A lot of books are about during wars and not a lot are about after the wars. This book is written to show that though the fighting was over, new challenges were at hand. Throughout this book I caught glimpses of after-war life. The Upstairs Room and The Journey  Back are written in short choppy sentences and thoughts because they're from Annie's perspective.

Parents: This book also contains a few choice words that I skipped over as I read it aloud. Skipping this part of the vernacular did not interfere with the flow or meaning of the story.