• Best Children's Books of the Year - Bank Street College of Education - 2003
• Ohioana Book Award finalist in the Juvenile category -Ohioana Library Association - 2003
• Books for the Teen Age New York Public Library - 2003
• Best Recent Historical Fiction: A Selective List by Michael Cart - 2002
• Notable Children's Books of Jewish Content: The Best of the Bunch from Association of Jewish Libraries - 2002
• Selection for Cincinnati's city-wide reading program - 2003

"In this promising debut novel, Cheng sensitively mines her mother's experiences as the daughter of assimilated Jews in 1930s and '40s Budapest. …The author inhabits the character so smoothly that her story reads almost like a memoir; readers will almost certainly be moved by her evocation of Marika's lost world."
     —Publishers Weekly

"Cheng brings Marika and her world alive with her simple prose, investing readers in the protagonist's life. There is a lot of World War II and Holocaust literature available for young people, but libraries needing a fresh voice could consider adding this intriguing offering."
     —School Library Journal

"A child's-eye view written in beautifully spare prose gives a special quality to this historical piece. … Marika is a poignant emotional portrait."
     —Kirkus Reviews

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"In this promising debut novel, Cheng sensitively mines her mother's experiences as the daughter of assimilated Jews in 1930s and '40s Budapest. …The author inhabits the character so smoothly that her story reads almost like a memoir; readers will almost certainly be moved by her evocation of Marika's lost world."
     —Publishers Weekly

"Cheng brings Marika and her world alive with her simple prose, investing readers in the protagonist's life. There is a lot of World War II and Holocaust literature available for young people, but libraries needing a fresh voice could consider adding this intriguing offering."
     —School Library Journal

"A child's-eye view written in beautifully spare prose gives a special quality to this historical piece. … Marika is a poignant emotional portrait."
     —Kirkus Reviews

"The compelling novel is less a war story than it is the story of an interesting young life obscenely interrupted by Hitler's war."
     —Horn Book

"The clear, quiet prose ultimately tells a riveting story, not only about the Nazi terror and Hungarian anti-Semitism, but also about families and their secrets."
     —Booklist

"The strength of the novel is the author's ability to put us inside the carefree world of a 10-year-old girl and then keep us there when the harsh reality begins to dawn on Marika."
     —Multicultural Review

"The plot is written with such clarity that instead of being overburdened with events,it flows as a compelling Holocaust story. Family dynamics, history, and the common experiences of growing up are blended into an excellent historical text."
     —Library Media Connection

"Ms. Cheng's prose is unsettling in its directness and has a forceful grace that lingers. Readers will wonder how this could have happened —and will find themselves thinking about places where prejudice still exists."
     —Cincinnati Enquirer