Searching for Lottie

by Susan Ross (Author)

Reading Level: 4th − 5th Grade

Lottie, a talented violinist, disappeared during the Holocaust. Can her grand-niece, Charlie, discover what happened?

A long-lost cousin, a mysterious locket, a visit to Nana Rose in Florida, a diary written in German, and a very special violin all lead twelve-year-old Charlie to the truth about her great-aunt Lottie in this intriguing, intergenerational mystery.

Charlie, a budding violinist, decides to research the life of her great-aunt and namesake for her middle school ancestry project. Everyone in Charlie's family believes Great-Aunt Charlotte (called Lottie), a violin prodigy, died at the hands of the Nazis, but the more Charlie uncovers about her long-lost relative, the more muddied Great-Aunt Lottie's story becomes. Could it be that Lottie somehow survived the war by hiding in Hungary? Could she even still be alive today?

In Searching for Lottie, Susan Ross has written a highly personal work of historical fiction that is closely inspired by her own family history, exploring the ongoing effects of the Holocaust on families today. Includes a letter from the author describing the research that shaped this story.

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Kirkus

Readers will appreciate putting together the puzzle pieces, which are loosely based on the author's own family's story. A highly accessible and endearing historical mystery about a painful period of the past that still resonates in the contemporary landscape.

Publishers Weekly

Seventh grader Charlie was named after her great-aunt Charlotte, known as Lottie, who disappeared during the 1938 Anschluss, and who, like Charlie, was a gifted violinist. A school assignment sends Charlie on a research mission to learn what happened to Lottie: did she perish in the Holocaust, or did she survive, unbeknownst to her family? As Charlie follows clues found in mementos and memories from her beloved Nana Rose, Lottie's younger sister, she becomes intent on finding Lottie. She researches Ellis Island archives online, tracks down translators of old German and Hungarian, and telephones strangers in other cities. Ross (Kiki and Jacques) convincingly depicts Charlie's growing passion for--and persistence in--her quest, together with her love for music and a blossoming crush on a fellow musician. Family relationships, as well as issues of aging and Alzheimer's, are drawn with gentleness and compassion. Ross moves the story at a smooth pace as Charlie encounters new obstacles and overcomes them, thanks to several serendipitous events. This is a tender, hopeful work with just the right level of suspense for younger fans of historical fiction. Ages 8-12. (Feb.)

Copyright 2018 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.

School Library Journal

Gr 5-7--Twelve-year-old Charlie (short for Charlotte) Roth has been assigned a family history project. She decides to research her long-lost namesake, Lottie Kulka, presumed to have perished in Hungary during the Holocaust. Lottie's mother and younger sister, fortunately, escaped Austria to the United States, but Lottie was not so lucky. She was studying violin in Hungary and was never heard from again. Charlie interviews her own grandmother, Lottie's sister, and she shares scrapbooks, letters, and other mementos related to Lottie's life in Europe. These family documents lead Charlie on a slightly unbelievable path in which she finds distant relatives and discovers new truths about her family. In so doing, she navigates the world of middle school orchestra, boys, friends, and her immediate family. The dialogue, though information-packed, is often stiff. The author concludes with a note explaining how this story weaves together her own family's history. She further explains how the abundance of online and digital genealogical resources makes researching one's family history more possible than ever before. She encourages readers to research their own heritage and ask family members to share stories. VERDICT A satisfactory Holocaust story with encouraging words for readers to spark storytelling and genealogical research.--Lisa Crandall, formerly at the Capital Area District Library, Holt, MI

Copyright 2019 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Review quotes

Charlie's quest for information is realistically interrupted by her own life as a middle-schooler with crushes, friends, and her violin practice, and her competitive but still affectionate relationship with her brother underlines the loss that her grandmother feels in her sister's disappearance. When the perennial family history project approaches, readers may be inspired to explore lesser-known limbs of their family tree to find surprises of their own.—Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

While tweens will identify with the daily challenges Charlie faces (her best friend moving, her crush on a cello player, her relationship with her older brother), this is all background for an unpredictable, page-turning mystery. Students may be motivated to find out more about this horrific period in world history or become interested in genealogy. . . . A short novel with brief chapters, this title would be an excellent read aloud for instruction on the Holocaust or for recognizing Remembrance Day on May 2nd.School Library Connection
Susan Ross
Susan Ross is an author and writing teacher from Maine. Her first novel, Kiki and Jacques, was a Bank Street Best Children's Book of the Year. Searching for Lottie is her second novel and draws greatly upon her own family's experiences and the memories of loved ones lost in the Holocaust.
Classification
Fiction
ISBN-13
9780823441662
Lexile Measure
-
Guided Reading Level
-
Publisher
Holiday House
Publication date
February 20, 2019
Series
-
BISAC categories
JUV004010 - Juvenile Fiction | Biographical | Europe
JUV013030 - Juvenile Fiction | Family | Multigenerational
JUV028000 - Juvenile Fiction | Mysteries, Espionage, & Detective Stories
JUV016060 - Juvenile Fiction | Historical | Holocaust
Library of Congress categories
History
United States
Families
Family life
Jews
Musicians
Detective and mystery fiction
JUVENILE FICTION / Mysteries & Detective Stor
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
JUVENILE FICTION / Historical / Holocaust
Violin
1938-1945
Austria
JUVENILE FICTION / Biographical / European
Historical ficiton

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