Jeska Verstegen

I love the front cover of this novel, it is so moving in its simplicity. "I'll Keep You Close" was a touching story based on the author's family history. I loved how the novel was told from a child's perspective as Jeska tried to discover the secrets her mother had been keeping from her.

Through school history lessons, her grandmother's photo albums, her father's encyclopedias, "The Diary of Anne Frank" and visits to the library she slowly starts to assemble pieces of the puzzle. As Jeska learns what happened to her family during WWII so does the reader, revealing the horror of the time and the inter-generational trauma that still existed, especially in her mother.

At the end of the book, there was a link to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum which showed a short chip of five-year-old Hesje laughing, playing and running happily around. It made me cry knowing that a few months later this beautiful, innocent little girl was murdered simply because of her race. So utterly cruel and heartless!… (más)

Well done -- a spare, memoir-ish story about a child trying to find out her family history, with the holocaust as a major factor in that history. Her voice is very convincing -- as this is based on the author's family, that's to be expected, I guess, but she writes from an 11 year old viewpoint in an authentic way. I particularly like her awareness that childhood is ending, and how she's holding on to her own smallness and care for toys and imagination. I resisted the idea of growing up and it's cool to see that reflected. It's also a great portrait of a family with lingering trauma and how that manifests through generations. Thoughtful, moving.… (más)

Jeska is a child living with family secrets. After her grandmother calls her by another name , Jeska is determined to uncover what these secrets are and why they make her mother so sad. Basically it is a story about a child discovering what happened in the holocaust, and how she has Jewish ancestry that has been impacted by the terrible events of World War 2. Part mystery, part coming-of-age book about families and history, this is based on the author's own experiences. (The main character and the author have the same name.)… (más)