I'll Keep You Close

by Jeska Verstegen, Bill Nagelkerke (Translator)

Overview

Jeska doesn't know why her mother keeps the curtains drawn so tightly every day. And what exactly is she trying to drown out when she floods the house with Mozart? What are they hiding from?

When Jeska's grandmother accidentally calls her by a stranger's name, she seizes her first clue to uncovering her family's past, and hopefully to all that's gone unsaid. With the help of an old family photo album, her father's encyclopedia collection, and the unquestioning friendship of a stray cat, the silence begins to melt into frightening clarity: Jeska's family survived a terror that they've worked hard to keep secret all her life. And somehow, it has both nothing and everything to do with her, all at once.

A true story of navigating generational trauma as a child, I'll Keep You Close is about what comes after disaster: how survivors move forward, what they bring with them when they do, and the promise of beginning again while always keeping the past close.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781646141111
Publisher:	Levine Querido
Publication date:	11/16/2021
Pages:	176
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Jeska Verstegen is an author and illustrator living in Amsterdam. She is a descendant of Emanuel Querido, the revolutionary Jewish-Dutch publisher who was captured and killed by the Nazis in World War II. Jeska began her career in 1990 as an illustrator for magazines and children's books. The white sheet of paper feels to her like a stage where you can perform any role, and one day she decided to paint pictures with words as well. Writing I'll Keep You Close re-acquainted her with herself and also gave her a new color palette of diligently chosen words. I'll Keep You Close is her debut novel, based on the true story of her own family history.

Bill Nagelkerke is a prolific children's writer, translator, and former librarian. His stories, poems and plays have appeared in many New Zealand anthologies. In 2013 Nagelkerke was awarded the Storylines Margaret Mahy Medal and Lecture Award in recognition of his dedicated contribution to children's literature and literacy in New Zealand.

Editorial Reviews

09/27/2021

Straddling memoir and fiction, illustrator Verstegen (A New Home for Beaver) tells the story of 11-year-old Jesje uncovering the trauma of her family’s WWII tragedies. Jesje, her older sister, and their parents live in the shadow of her mother’s unexplained fears and sensitivities—to noise, to strangers, to war talk—keeping shades drawn, voices lowered, and the doorbell often unplugged. When Jesje’s Flemish grandmother, Bomma, mistakenly calls her “Hesje” and nobody will explain the name’s origin, Jesje turns investigative journalist to learn who the mysterious figure was and why her parents insist on keeping the war’s history from her. Following clues in Bomma’s photo album, as well as eavesdropping, secretly visiting Bomma, and questioning a visiting uncle, Jesje comes to understand the roots of her mother’s behaviors and her own identity. Set in the Netherlands, apparently in the early 1980s, the slim novel is imbued with hidden grief and pain, but also with the quiet joys that Jesje’s sensitive nature brings her, as she befriends a neighborhood cat, tries to save a favorite tree, and creates an imaginary island with a friend. The book’s gentle pace may discourage some, but Jesje’s steady pursuit of the truth and embracing of her legacy make for a satisfying read. Ages 8–12. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

This story adds a new perspective to the Holocaust for our young readers and would be a fine purchase for all upper elementary through high school libraries.”-School Library Connection,


[STAR] “In its specificity, it finds the universal... . Multigenerational trauma artfully revealed from a child’s point of view.”-Kirkus Reviews (starred),


“A satisfying read... imbued with hidden grief and pain, but also with the quiet joys.”-Publishers Weekly,


“Jeska’s simple, straightforward voice...captures the melancholy mood of this quietly memorable story.”-Booklist ,


“A lovely, poetic, stand-out coming of age story.”-The Sydney Taylor Shmooze,

From the Publisher

★ 2021-07-14
Discovering your family’s mysterious past can be eye-opening.

Not to mention disorienting. Eleven-year-old Jeska, known as Jesje, lives in the Netherlands and is familiar with her mother’s unexplained anger, dark moods, emotionally triggered responses, frequent playing of Mozart, and admonitions to be invisible and that “no one can be trusted.” She notices that their household is somber in atmosphere compared with that of her best friend, Lienke, and seeks solace with a cat she names Moz (short for Mozart). When her mother’s mother, Bomma, becomes confused in the nursing home she lives in since leaving Antwerp, Jesje investigates and learns painful details of the past. Bomma mistakes Jesje for her niece, Hesje, a beloved companion of Jesje’s mother, who was “transported” at a tender age to a concentration camp. Debut author Vestergen tells this true story of her family’s previously unrevealed identity and history. She is a descendant of Emanuel Querido, a Dutch publisher of an earlier generation (and inspiration for this book’s U.S. publisher). Setting this book apart from other Holocaust survivor stories are the language and imagery, a family story that focuses on very young children, the Dutch setting, and the attempts of a sensitive young person to understand mystifying adult behavior and PTSD—in its specificity, it finds the universal.

Multigenerational trauma artfully revealed from a child’s point of view. (afterword, photograph) (Historical fiction. 8-12)

Kirkus Reviews