Alan and Naomi

Alan and Naomi
Author: Myron Levoy
Publisher: HarperCollins (1977)
ISBN: 0064402096

4.5 (out of 5) STARS

Summary: Alan is encouraged by his parents to befriend a girl who traumatized by the Nazi's in Europe. Alan and Naomi become good friends over time. But the traumas and scars within Naomi reach deep and Alan must come to terms with that.

Review: During the middle of World War II Naomi and her mother immigrate to the United States as Jewish refugees. Naomi suffers from extreme post traumatic stress disorder. She witnessed the brutal murder of her father in France. Naomi and her father were frantically trying to destroy critical maps while the Nazi’s were pounding at the door. They were ripping and tearing the maps up, trying to flush them down the toilet, even swallowing pieces. The destruction of the maps was successful, but Naomi could not save her father. She blames herself for his death.

Alan is a boy who lives in the same apartment building as Naomi. He is asked and encouraged to become friends with Naomi. When he first starts visiting her she will not even look at him. She spends all her time shredding newspapers into tiny pieces. Alan decides to take his ventriloquist dummy with him. Over time Alan’s’ dummy named Charlie and Naomi’s doll named Yvette become friends. After many months Naomi is doing quite well and is able to attend school with Alan.

I found this book to be a very thought provoking novel. Alan felt a great deal of peer pressure to hang out with the boys and not befriend a girl. But he made the difficult, moral choice to help another person. Although this book does not indicate, I would think this experience changed Alan and made him a more compassionate, strong person.