THE CHILDREN OF WILLESDEN LANE is a wonderful little book --- at times heartbreaking but, ultimately, inspirational. It tells the true story of Lisa Jura, who in 1938 was a promising 14-year-old pianist living happily in Vienna with her close-knit Jewish family and dreaming of following the musical footsteps of Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, and Strauss. But when the Nazis started closing in, her parents were able to secure one, and only one, berth on the Kindertransport, the so-called "children's train" out of Austria. Forced to choose, Lisa's mother and father made the difficult decision to send Lisa, their middle daughter, to safety.

Lisa's parents had hoped that she could live with relatives in England. However, that plan did not work, and Lisa soon became a displaced person. The title of the book refers to the wartime children's hostel at 243 Willesden Lane in London, where Lisa eventually (and fortunately) found a home with other young Jewish refugees.

Most of the book follows Lisa's life during the war years. It is a moving coming-of-age story of the friendships Lisa made, her attempts to continue her musical training, her worries about the family she left behind, and her efforts to help her younger sister, in particular, to escape from Austria and join her in England. The book also opens a window on the joys and hardships of everyday life in London during World War II. It reads much like a novel, but no reader will mistake Lisa Jura --- a frightened, lonely, determined young woman --- for a fictional character.

THE CHILDREN OF WILLESDEN LANE has obvious parallels to other Holocaust stories, such as SCHINDLER'S LIST by Thomas Keneally and SOPHIE'S CHOICE by William Styron. SOPHIE'S CHOICE is similar, especially as a Holocaust story set outside of Nazi-occupied territory (specifically, in New York) --- but because it is a novel, not a true story, some readers will find that SOPHIE'S CHOICE cannot be as touching. SCHINDLER'S LIST recounting of a German Catholic industrialist whose concentration camp/factory helped 1300 Jews to avoid Nazi gas chambers is based on a true story, but it is much larger in scope and more historical in style. I thought THE CHILDREN OF WILLESDEN LANE was just as powerful in its own way, probably because of its very personal scale; it brings home the way the Nazi horrors affected one teenage girl.

By the way, the author of THE CHILDREN OF WILLESDEN LANE is Mona Golabek, Lisa Jura's daughter. Mona Golabek is herself an accomplished pianist who has won many honors and prizes, and who has performed with many of the world's finest symphonies (such as the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Tokyo Philharmonic) and conductors (including Zubin Mehta, Andre Previn, and Michael Tilson Thomas). Mona Golabek has also been the subject of several PBS musical specials.

I believe THE CHILDREN OF WILLESDEN LANE will quickly and deservedly become a bestseller. I don't know anything about the movie business, but it is easy to imagine this as a successful film as well. This is truly an extraordinarily uplifting book.

   --- Reviewed by Michael J. Dooris (mjd1@psu.edu)

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