A Family Secret by Eric Heuvel
Requirements: CBR Reader, 22 MB.
Overview: While searching his grandmother’s attic for likely items to sell at a yard sale, Jeroen finds a photo album that brings back hard memories for his grandmother, Helena. Helena tells Jeroen for the first time about her experiences during the German occupation of the Netherlands during the Second World War, and mourns the loss of her Jewish best friend, Esther. Helena believes that her own father, a policeman and Nazi sympathizer, delivered Esther to the Nazis and that she died in a concentration camp. But after hearing her story, Jeroen makes a discovery and Helena realizes that her father kept an important secret from her
A Family Secret / Die Entdeckung
- Eric Heuvel artist writer
Hanneke Bons colors
Lorraine T. Miller translator
Published by Macmillan Children’s Books, 2007.
- Reviewed by Douglas P. Davey, Halton Hills Public Library, Ontario, Canada.
- These intertwined graphic novels tell the stories of two girls coming of age in Europe during World War II. A Family Secret follows the story of Helena, who survived the war primarily due to her father’s decision to collaborate with the Nazis. She recounts her life and those of others, including citizens stranded in the Dutch East Indies at the time. The Search begins in our current era, with Esther arriving in the Netherlands from the U.S. for her grandson’s Bar Mitzvah. While there, she catches up with Helena, whom she befriended at age 12 after fleeing Hitler’s Germany for the Netherlands. Through flashbacks, Esther and Helena tell their grandsons about the danger-filled era of their youth. Before she returns to the U.S., Esther learns the final fate of her family and receives a priceless memento that Helena has kept for her. The Search, in particular, would pair well with Anne Frank’s Diary of a Young Girl. Heuvel crafts his artwork in the European ligne claire style, making the books highly reminiscent of Herge’s work in "Tintin." North American audiences may find the cartoon style somewhat at odds with the often tragic nature of the narratives, but those who try it out will find the books interesting and educational.
"A Solid Read and a Good Introduction to a Far Deeper Story", Reviewed by GraphicNovelReporter.com on November 2, 2009.
- "By now, the historical events of the Nazi occupation and subsequent Holocaust, as well as related subjects, have been visited in graphic novel form more times than I can count, probably most notably with Art Spiegelman’s epic and effective Maus. It’s a subject that deserves repetition; so many artists and authors have laid their craft to telling and retelling aspects and subtleties of the stories that came from there.
A Family Secret begins with a teenager’s search through an attic for stuff to sell in a tag sale and evolves into his grandmother telling him about her experiences as a "safe" Dutch citizen, and then moves into the tale of her Jewish friend Esther, who suffered through the terror of the Holocaust. The framing device of "teenager finding stuff in an attic" only takes up a few panels in the collective story, and his reactions to his grandmother’s tale seem to be almost indifferent and don’t add anything to the overall graphic novel. I remain confused as to why they were included at all, but perhaps they provide a relatable point of entry for the intended audience of children.
Most comics that deal with the effects of Nazi Germany incorporate historical first- or second-person accounts of actual events and people, but Eric Heuvel’s A Family Secret chooses to approach the topic from a fictional, or hypothetical, angle. While it is firmly rooted in history and delivers accurate facts along an accurate timeline, some of the impact of the actual story is mitigated by the fact that it will inevitably be compared to "actual events," which are generally more gripping. Regardless, it was an easy read in one sitting, and it presented history in a way that even I could understand, as someone who is notoriously bewildered when it comes to that type of thing. This artist’s work has actually come under fire from the Central Council of Jews in Germany as oversimplifying history, though I doubt it intends to act as an encyclopedia of events. Instead, it’s a gateway into further study.
The line art is crisp and beautiful, and probably the best part of the book itself, though the style might not complement the subject matter as much as it could. Again, it’s another aspect that provides accessibility to the audience.
And for a story about the Holocaust, there is very limited violence and no profanity. It should be appropriate for any age reader who is prepared to learn about this portion of history. If you enjoy this, the story and characters are expanded upon in The Search, also by Heuvel. Even if they never move past the world of being just characters on a page, it’s a solid read and a good introduction to a far deeper story." — Collin David
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