“You are help­ing me by leav­ing,” Mama tells Susan. It is 1944, and although the war has been a pres­ence in their lives for a long time, the stakes are now high. Papa has been sent to a work camp, and the cor­ner store refus­es to serve Mama. Along with her sis­ter, Vera, Susan must escape their home in Hun­gary to go into hid­ing from the Nazis. Mam’s friend, Aunt Isi, has a plan. Guardian Angel House is based on the true sto­ry of the author’s moth­er and aunt. Told from the point of view of Susan, the old­er of the two sis­ters, the care­ful nar­ra­tive chron­i­cles their days in the con­vent with the brave nuns who pro­tect­ed 120 girls. It is a sto­ry filled with heart and love of Judaism. More impor­tant, it shows how peo­ple of dif­fer­ent reli­gions and lifestyles can come togeth­er to rein­force all our beliefs. The text is easy-to-read and straight for­ward. Vio­lence does not appear on the page — the author keeps the text appro­pri­ate for young read­ers by focus­ing on the grow­ing rela­tion­ships between the girls and the nuns. Like the gar­den that Susan cul­ti­vates with Sis­ter Agnes, the nar­ra­tive grows slow­ly and steadi­ly, lead­ing us to joy and sad­ness at the end of the war. The book includes his­tor­i­cal pho­tographs and notes about the author’s fam­i­ly and the Hun­gar­i­an con­vent. It is an inspir­ing sto­ry of sur­vival, but more impor­tant, it shows the read­er how peo­ple of mul­ti­ple faiths can put their dif­fer­ences aside to live the val­ues they share. For ages 10 – 14.