SuitabookFlight
Vanessa Harbour
- Reading
- Read alongside a trusted adult if wartime persecution or implied danger may feel intense. Pause after major moments to discuss what is known, what remains uncertain, and how different characters may feel.
- Themes
- Courage under persecution: Jakob is Jewish and hiding in Austria in 1945; Herr Engel risks hiding him, while danger comes from a German officer and the surrounding war. The book’s stance on this remains unclear.
- Protection and responsibility: Jakob, Herr Engel and Kizzy attempt to guide Lipizzaner horses to safety while also trying to survive enemy territory. The horses are central to the journey and create a distinctive responsibility-focused situation, but the broader message is not established.
- Displacement and belonging: Jakob has lost his family, Kizzy is an orphan Roma girl, and hungry refugees add to the dangers surrounding the journey. The book’s stance on this remains unclear.
- Worth knowing
- Expect sustained tension, wartime peril, loss of family, antisemitic persecution, danger to a Roma child, hungry refugees and references to the horrors of war. Much disturbing material is implied rather than graphically described.