Review by Booklist Review
This biography of Ruth Gruber, a Jewish American journalist and human rights activist, does a very effective job of creating an insightful profile of a courageous woman who lived through some of the most turbulent periods of the twentieth century. Gruber was born in 1911 and was finishing her PhD in Nazi Germany right on the cusp of Hitler's rise to power (at the time, 20-year-old Gruber was briefly famous for being the youngest person ever to achieve a doctorate). She began her literary career by writing newspaper stories about diverse Brooklyn neighborhoods as a rebuttal to rising antisemitism. Stints in Soviet Union gulags and Alaska followed, and her empathetic reporting prompted a request from the U.S. government for her help in relocating war refugees, including concentration camp survivors. The book ends at this point, but an author's note fills in the rest of Gruber's amazing 70-year career. Helpful sidebars provide historic context, and back matter includes a time line, glossary, notes, and bibliography. This is an apt tribute to an inspiring Jewish role model.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A biography of a journalist, human rights advocate, and truth teller. Arato opens with a look at Ruth Gruber's (1911-2016) childhood. The children of Russian Jewish immigrants, she was born in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, where everyone she knew was Jewish and spoke Yiddish. At school she discovered a wider world with Irish, Polish, and Black students and teachers. She was a brilliant student, entering college at age 15, majoring in German, and later becoming the youngest person ever to earn a Ph.D. While studying in Germany, she observed the rise of Nazism and the escalating antisemitism. Back in the United Sates, she began writing for the Herald Tribune, but she knew her life's purpose was to fight injustice with words and images. She worked on newspaper and government assignments that took her to Nazi Germany, Poland, Siberia, Alaska, and, in 1944, to Europe and back, escorting 954 mostly Jewish refugees to a camp in Oswego, New York, where she remained as their advocate and friend. She listened and wrote of their horrific experiences and fought tirelessly for them to be given permanent status after the war. This exciting, accessible narrative relates Ruth's exploits in meticulously researched detail. Insets provide salient information, while Muñoz's softly hued illustrations carefully highlight key events. A moving account of an unstoppable woman. (author's note, photographs, glossary, source notes, timeline, selected bibliography, index) (Biography. 8-12) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
