Very powerful story of the early days of Nazi Germany told from the point of view of young Jewish girl. My only complaint was that I was unclear about her age, perhaps in her teens. The build up, slowly, of oppressions is frightening and enforces, over and over again, how wrong is always wrong and how easily people can be coerced. Incredibly well done.

Edith Baer escaped the Nazi's and came to America in her teens, the only member of her family to survive the Holocaust. The two young adult novels A Frost in the Night and its sequel Walk the Dark Streets are a very close but fictional retelling of her own experiences growing up in 1930's Germany.

I enjoyed A Frost in the Night and was looking forward to reading the sequel. Unfortunately, I did not enjoy Walk the Dark Streets nearly as much. Whereas the first book takes place in a relatively short period of time (a year), the sequel is spread out over seven years. Each chapter covers about nine months. Such a whirlwind tour is hard to sustain in a meaningful way. The plot jumped along jerkily, and it was hard for me to see Eva grow significantly along the way.

In addition, due to the increasingly violent society about which she is writing, Baer's language lacks the same quality which made her bucolic descriptions of pre-Nazi Germany so attractive. Her writing in the sequel seems flat in comparison. ( )