Book Review: Someone Named Eva by Joan M. Wolf

Someone Named Eva has to be my favorite children’s/middle grade novel. I’m not sure how many times I read this growing up. I wanted something quick and beloved to finish out 2024, so I quickly downed this book last night. It’s about a young Czechoslakian girl named Milada who is kidnapped and forced to enter Hitler’s Lebensborn program, which was a program intended to increase Germany’s population with “racially pure” individuals. At the end of WW2, this included kidnapping children from other European countries under Nazi occupation that displayed the correct racial features (a.k.a. blond hair and light-colored eyes) and teaching them (brainwashing them) to blend into German society. 

Milada is stripped of her family, of her real name, of her country, of her language, of the truth, of everything she has known. She has to struggle to remember her identity. She repeats her real name over and over to herself in the night. The girls that are with her in the program either struggle alongside her to remember who they are or they embrace their new identity and ideology that the Nazis are trying to shove down their throats. 

I love that this novel is geared towards children, teaching them gently about the horrors of World War II, and specifically about a topic a lot of adults don’t even know about. But even though this book is obviously written towards children, you can tell the author is a very good writer. Though the narrative felt rushed in a few instances, the author had to keep it to a shorter word limit for its audience, so that’s easy to forgive. And there were just a couple of moments that were described belatedly instead of playing out on the page or that told me emotions instead of showing them, but I honestly felt everything could be justified given the intended audience. Ultimately, the writing was so easy to read and made getting lost in the story seamless.

There are a few scenes towards the end of this novel that have always stuck with me and often pop into my head at random moments. Namely, the fight between Eva (Milada’s given German name) and Elsbeth, the daughter of the German family Eva was adopted into, and the last written interaction between Eva and her adoptive “mutter” and Elsbeth. I can’t say much more than that to avoid spoilers, but I think Wolf wrote these emotionally charged moments so well and captured the complex struggle of having to hurt people though you love them against your better judgment.

I just adore this book because of my personal history with it, the important history it teaches children, and the strength and complexity of emotions it portrays.