Vous voulez voir cette page en français ? Cliquez ici.

Get it for less! Order it used
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
 
If I Should Die Before I Wake
 
 
Share your own customer images
Search inside another edition of this book

If I Should Die Before I Wake (Library Binding)

by Han Nolan (Author) "SHE'S LOOKING AT ME ..." (more)
4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (64 customer reviews)

Currently unavailable.
We don't know when or if this item will be back in stock.


Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

by John Boyne
4.3 out of 5 stars (14)  CDN$ 9.89
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

DVD ~ Asa Butterfield
4.5 out of 5 stars (2)  CDN$ 19.95
I Have Lived A Thousand Years: Growing Up In The Holocaust

I Have Lived A Thousand Years: Growing Up In The Holocaust

by Livia Bitton-Jackson
4.8 out of 5 stars (117)  CDN$ 8.50
The Old Brown Suitcase

The Old Brown Suitcase

by Lillian Boraks-Nemetz
CDN$ 9.86
Five Chimneys: A Woman's True Story of Auschwitz

Five Chimneys: A Woman's True Story of Auschwitz

by Olga Lengyel
4.9 out of 5 stars (28)  CDN$ 14.56
› Explore similar items

Product Details

Product Description

From Publishers Weekly

Few novels can match this effort for its stupefying lack of taste. Teenager Hilary, who has never recovered from the long-ago death of her father and from her Bible-thumping mother's temporary abandonment of her, lies in a coma, the victim of her own adventures with her neo-Nazi pals. Suddenly she "slips" into another life--that of a Jewish girl in Poland at the beginning of the Nazi occupation. It turns out that she is sharing the memories of her hospital roommate, whose telepathic communications eventually bring about Hilary's salvation. Gratuitously lurid subplots involve teenage American neo-Nazi depredations and the torture of Hilary's young Jewish neighbor; the Holocaust flashbacks feature a psychic grandmother. Passages about Nazi ghettos and concentration camps seem cobbled together from survivors' memoirs (noticeably, Kitty Hart's several autobiographies and Fania Fenelon's Playing for Time ), while the overall conceit owes a major debt to Jane Yolen's The Devil's Arithmetic. Any hope that the author will redeem this misbegotten first novel is quickly quashed by her unrelievedly airless prose. Ages 12-up.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From School Library Journal

Grade 7-12-Hilary Burke, a young Neo-Nazi, is in a coma after a motorcycle accident. Ironically, she has been taken to a Jewish hospital and shares a room with elderly Chana, an Auschwitz survivor. Instrumental in the kidnapping of her 13-year-old Jewish neighbor, Hilary hates all Jews and believes one caused her father's death. Through Chana's memories, the girl is transported back to World War II, experiencing for herself the horrors suffered by Polish Jews just trying to survive, first in the Lodz ghetto, then in the concentration camp. While the subject matter is certainly compelling, this first novel is not as powerful as Jane Yolen's The Devil's Arithmetic (Viking, 1988) or as chilling as Jay Bennett's Skinhead (Watts, 1991). Nolan does a better job of portraying Chana than Hilary or her Bible-quoting mother, but Mrs. Burke's dysfunctional personality and Hilary's problems with her are clear. Interspersed are Biblical passages that are sometimes appropriate to the text, but often unnecessary and distracting. The ending is predictable and soppy: Chana dies leaving an album full of family photos to Hilary. Stick to the numerous, excellent-quality, existing examples of Holocaust literature.
Jo-Anne Weinberg, Greenburgh Public Library, NY
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
See all Product Description
Inside This Book (Learn More)
Browse and search another edition of this book.
First Sentence
SHE'S LOOKING AT ME. Read the first page
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
Search inside this book:

Suggested Tags from Similar Products

 (What's this?)
Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
 
(3)
(2)
(2)
(2)
(2)
(1)
(1)
(1)
(1)
(1)

Your tags: Add your first tag
 
See most popular tags

What do customers ultimately buy after viewing this item?

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
51% buy
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas 4.3 out of 5 stars (14)
CDN$ 9.89
If I Should Die Before I Wake
23% buy the item featured on this page:
If I Should Die Before I Wake 4.7 out of 5 stars (64)
Push: A Novel
10% buy
Push: A Novel 4.3 out of 5 stars (163)
CDN$ 8.00
I Have Lived A Thousand Years: Growing Up In The Holocaust
7% buy
I Have Lived A Thousand Years: Growing Up In The Holocaust 4.8 out of 5 stars (117)
CDN$ 8.50
Explore similar items
 

Customer Reviews

64 Reviews
5 star:
 (48)
4 star:
 (12)
3 star:
 (4)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.7 out of 5 stars (64 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most helpful customer reviews

 
4.0 out of 5 stars If I Should Die Before I Wake, Jan 20 2004
By A Customer
This review is from: If I Should Die Before I Wake (Paperback)
If I Should Die Before I Wake Harcourt Brace, 1994, 225 pp.
Han Nolan $18.00 ISBN:0-15-23840-x

"You must want to live more than anything else because here that is all there is--life, or death. But mostly death." Another Jewish prisoner is talking to Chana about how to survive in Auschwitz, one of the worst concentration camps ever. Chana and her Bubbe are the only survivors from her family so far in World War II.
Stated above is part of Hilary's "Unconscious Life" that she lives while she's unconscious during her coma. She is in a coma as a result of a motorcycle accident with her Neo-Nazi boyfriend and is staying at a Jewish hospital because it was the closest one to the site of the accident, hence her boyfriend doesn't visit her.
I thought this was an awesome book. Han Nolan packs the books with both facts and experiences that I wanted to keep on reading the book after I finished it. She made history a reality to me while I gasped in anticipation to read the next chapter. Reading If I Should Die Before I Wake has been a great experience for me to learn more about the Holocaust.
I would definitely recommend this book to others because it has an extremely powerful impact about how interested people will be in history. I'd recommend this book to ages twelve years and older who like realistic fiction stories and don't mind gory details.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews  
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No


 
4.0 out of 5 stars Great for Younger Readers, Nov 29 2003
By Leeann (Birmingham, MI, USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: If I Should Die Before I Wake (Paperback)
I had some mixed feelings about this book. For one thing, I pretty much predicted the plot just from reading the back cover. Also, Nolan's language just didn't move me the way some authors can. That said, this is still an extraordinary book, and I know it would've amazed and inspired me had I read it at a younger age, back before I knew much about the Holocaust. So, if you are [or you know] a young adult reader with little knowledge of the Holocaust who might develop an interest in it, I'd certainly recommend this book.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews  
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No


 
5.0 out of 5 stars an amazing insight to nazi interment camps, Sep 11 2003
By francesca (virginia) - See all my reviews
This review is from: If I Should Die Before I Wake (Paperback)
i've read many holocaust realated titles in my 16 years but none have had such depth that "If I should die before I wake" you really felt as if you were there with chana and hilary you felt chana's love,pain,fear and frustration all while getting an insight into hilary's neo-nazi world. highly recomended by francesca
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews  
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 		 Most recent customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars If I Should Die Before I Wake
When I first picked this book up, I looked at the cover. It was an amazing cover and to go with it, it had an amazing story! Read more
Published on July 3 2003

3.0 out of 5 stars Good book
I have to say I loved the book when i first read it. I thought the story dragged a little at the beginning but picked up once Chana and her family reached the ghetto. Read more
Published on Jun 9 2003 by Connie Corley

5.0 out of 5 stars Just amazing, there is nothing I can say to change my mind.
"IF I should die before I wake" by Han Nolan is amazing! This story is tragic,compelling and just a tear-starter. Read more
Published on May 30 2003

5.0 out of 5 stars An Absolute Tear-Jerker
Stories of the Holocaust appeal to me, and this book did just that. All though I am not Jewish, this book still caught my eye. Read more
Published on May 26 2003 by Krista Kachich- Bak Middle Sch...

4.0 out of 5 stars One of the best books ever!!!
This is one of the best books that I have ever read. It is one of those book that once you start reading it, it is hard to put down. Read more
Published on Dec 12 2002 by lilsrfrgirl73

5.0 out of 5 stars well worth it
My 11 yo daughter and I both read this book. It is a powerful treatise on our sometimes twisted perceptions of others and the shock of finding value where we thought there was... Read more
Published on Nov 12 2002 by Jeannette Wilcox

5.0 out of 5 stars It was Great!
I had to read this book for a grad standard and ended up really enjoying it. At first I thought the beginning was a little slow but it turned out to have a lot of meaning. Read more
Published on Mar 12 2002

3.0 out of 5 stars If I Should Die Before I Wake
In the begining of the book a girl was sent to a nozi concintration camp in Poland. Their in that camp she saw her mothers freind so she expected that her mother was their... Read more
Published on Mar 4 2002

4.0 out of 5 stars A bit rough around the edges, but still good.
"If I Should Die Before I Wake" is Han Nolan's first novel and in some ways it is the best. In other ways, far from the best. Read more
Published on Jan 6 2002 by Meaghan Good

4.0 out of 5 stars A amazing memory
Hilary a High school student, is in a gang named "neo-Nazi", her boyfriend Brad also hates jews, and belongs in the gang too. Read more
Published on Jan 3 2002 by Alma C. Valdez

Only search this product's reviews


Listmania!

Create a Listmania! list

Look for similar items by category

Look for similar items by subject













i.e., each book must be in subject 1 AND subject 2 AND ...

Feedback

Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Your Recent History

 (What's this?)

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.