Nicky & Vera
A Quiet Hero of the Holocaust and the Children He Rescued
by Peter Sis
Norton Young Readers, 2021. 64 pages.
Review written March 1, 2021, from a library book
Starred Review
Nicky & Vera tells about Nicky, a young Englishman who cancelled a ski vacation and followed his friend to Prague in 1938, and ended up working to get Jewish children out of Prague while there was still time. It also tells about Vera, who was one of those children.
The story is a little sad, because although Vera survived the war, no one else in her family did.
But it does tell about the six hundred sixty-nine children that Nicky was able to save.
Nicky was a quiet hero. He didn’t tell anyone about his heroic work after the war until his wife found his records in their attic about fifty years later. Then a television show arranged for many of those children to get to thank Nicky in person.
The stories are told with illustrations in Peter Sis’s distinctive almost surreal style, full of symbolism, which adds emotional impact to the words.
After Nicky was thanked by the grown children he saved, the book ends (except the extended Author’s Note) with these words:
669 children would not have survived
if not for Nicky, who went to Prague and saved their lives.I was not a hero, Nicky said.
I did not face any danger, as real heroes do.
I only saw what needed to be done.
A lovely and inspirational story.
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