Carol Matas, well-known for her books for children and young people has been successful in creating another eye-catcher. Her novel, After the War, is about the torture and stress that the Jews go through after World War II. Even though Germany had been defeated, atrocities against the Jews still existed. The Jewish question had to be solved. Jews still alive in Warsaw, Poland were being murdered. Carol Matas describes the will and tolerance power of a fifteen year old girl, Ruth Mendenberg, who risks her life to escort twenty children, some of her own age, from Warsaw to Eretz Israel. Matas has beautifully expressed every aspect of their journey halfway across the continent and the emotional stress they go through. Ruth had gone through the gruesome treatment at the ghettos and was living with the grim reality about her family murdered in the holocaust. She had lost all hope and stopped seeing any goodness in life. She decided not to get attached to anyone of the kids along with her since she didn't want to go through any pain or
             depression incase she loses them. It's amazing how she picks up her motivation and tries to move on just for the sake of the children accompanying her. Using secret routes and forged documents they carve their way to freedom and in a world where Jews would be respected. One of the best parts of the novel is the part in which she with the twenty children is about to cross the Czech border. The intense situation described by Matas is surely captivating. The way, the young children pick up their courage to move on, no matter what, is moving. This adventure is touching and Matas, after writing a few novels on holocaust before "After the War" has given birth to another marvelous novel. Her previous novels, "In my enemy's House", "Lisa", Jesper", "Daniel's story", are all linked with the courage and bravery of children who in times of despair show am...