If I Should Die Before I Wake

by Han Nolan

Book Overview

As part of a neo-Nazi gang in her town, Hilary has finally found a sense of belonging. But when she's critically injured in an accident, everything changes.

Somehow, in her mind, she has become Chana, a Jewish girl fighting for her own life in the ghettos and concentration camps of World War II.

Han Nolan offers powerful insight into one young woman's survival through the Holocaust and another's journey out of hatred...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0152046798
• ISBN13: 9780152046798
• Release Date: May 2003
• Publisher: Clarion Books
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.0" x 6.9"
• Age Range: 12 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 7 and higher

Customer Reviews

VERY REALISTIC and a great insight into the minds of both Neo-Nazi's and Jews (at the time of WWII)

It is the story of a young teenage girl named Hillary who was speeding on a motorcycle with her boyfriend, Brad, when they "crashed and burned," leaving Brad unharmed, but Hillary inches from death. She was rushed to a Jewish hospital, where she is slipping back and forth through consciousness, unable to contact anyone around her for the time she is in bed. When she is "unconscious," she is a girl named Chana. Chana is a Jewish girl, living in the years a little before and during the war. While she is Chana, it is only Gestapo members on the streets, beating down the Jews and their pride. Eventually, they are all sent to a Jewish ghetto, where daily life consisted of a body under a 2-story building window, filth, disease, hard manual labor, families of eight to ten living in one room apartments, and more death. Then later, when the SS lines them all up yet again, she is almost deported, but when not, she escapes in the dead of night. For a time, she is able to pose as a Polish citizen, when someone she used to know rats her out as she gets on a train to be part of a Polish worker round-up, which had meant freedom. She is then imprisoned until she is sentenced to "hard work" for life, and is sent to Auschwitz. The real Chana survives the war. During all of this, Hillary sees what the Jews had to go through. She started out in the beginning completely hateful. She is part of a plan that locked up a Jewish boy in one of her schools lockers without food or water for a few days, and her Neo-Nazi group, the Warriors, are about to participate in a huge march. Her mother also comes into the story, and stays by her bedside as the story progresses, but Hillary's mother, we find out, is another reason she became a Neo-Nazi, as they have had no relationship during her childhood (her dad was her "lifeline"). Then We see Hillary starting to talk (to herself as others stand around her), she reveals that she's had an empty chalky feeling ever since she was five, until Brad came into her life. It was he who influenced her to be recruited into the Warriors. Brad later comes to visit, with constant "Heil Hitler's" and informs her that they are going to torch the hospital, then leaves saying: "You're a hero, Hil. Remember that. You're dying for the cause, White Power! ... Heil Hitler babe. See you in hell." The fire turns out to fail, and the real Chana herself has just died of cancer as an old woman in the bed next to Hillary, but in was Chana who was able to supernaturally share her past with Hillary. Hillary is now changed, as this has been a very humbling experience.

My New Favorite Book

"If I Should Die Before I Wake" is now by far my favorite book. It is a sentimental story about a 16-year-old neo-nazi named Hilary and how her life crosses paths with the life of a young Jewish girl living in Europe during World War I named Chana. When Hilary gets in a car accident with her boyfriend Brad she finds herself in a coma at a Jewish hospital. As she struggles for her life she passes over from the views of her life to Chana's. As Chana, Hilary sees the many horrible and emotionally terrorizing things that the Nazis did to the Jews. Many of Chana's family members and friends are killed. This book gives a very descriptive, mind altering explanation of the concentration camps and the brutal deaths of the Jews. After seeing this Hilary realizes how wrong the Nazis were and changes her views about Jews. This book was very passionate and I recommend it for anyone who likes a good tearjerker because this book will definetly make you cry. Han Nolan did an excellent job of portraying the realities of the Holocaust.

5 stars is not enough!

Han Nolan has a very gifted way in writing If i should die before i wake. Im not going to summarize this book because so many people have done that already but i will say this: this book is the greatest book i have read on this topic since daniels story. The author lets one live in Chana's shoes and she does it in such a unique way....As the mood of the book changes so does the readers point of veiw. after reading this novel for me it gave life a new meaning. Each breath i took meant more than ever before and every time i say "im hungry" i think of those who were starving during the holocaust(sp). The author of this book has let us remember what was of the past and taught us never ever to forget. If the young adults that read this book do not feel as i do it is ok. But atleast some1 has written a book to let us not to forget about this horrible time in our world! We must teach our kids and them teach theirs so that our world NEVER forgets. Nolan has let the reader hear the crys for help and reminded us that life could be worste. I was filled with sorrow after reading this book and questions with answers that might never be revealed such as why the jews? In the intro. the author dedicates the novel to family and then says " and to 6 million jews whose faces i never knew but whose voice i some how heard" i am greatful that she too has let us hear their voice. This book deserves every price to be given and the authors talent should not go unknown. This book doesn't deserve 5 stars it deserves the 6 million starts of david that died along with the people whom stood with pride and wore their star keeping faith and dieing as a result in the holocaust....WE MUST NEVER FORGET!

An amazing book on what we all need to remember

Han Nolan has written an amazing book on something that some people don't want to believe ever happened:the Holocaust. 16 year-old Hilary Burke-a Neo-Nazi- is injured terribly in a motorcycle accident. Her boyfriend, Brad, also a Neo-Nazi getting off with only a few scratches and bruises. As she slips in and out of consciousness, she falls into the life of Chana, a jewish girl who is wrapped up in the times of the Holocaust. Her terrifying life as a young Jew helps her realize what she is doing(hanging Jews in trees and beating them up) is absolutely wrong. When Hilary is telling the chapter, all she can see is a 'Grandmaw', the actual Chana. Chana helps her realize that what she is seeing is her life as a child. At the end of the book, Chana's only living relative, her sister Nadzia, comes to tell Hilary something that hurts them all...especially after what Hilary(Chana) has just been through in her dreams. To find out more, I won't mess up this review and tell you what happens next. You have to read the book...Recommended for: 13+

If I Should Die Before I Wake

16-year-old Hilary Burke is a member of the Aryan Warriors, a Neo-Nazi organization in her town. She and her boyfriend, Brad, hate Jews and do everything in their power to make life hard for them and carry out Hitler's Final Solution. Then disaster strikes. While riding on Brad's motorcycle, the couple crash. Though Brad gets away without a scratch, Hilary is left with fatal injuries. She is put (against her will) into a Jewish hospital in a room with an elderly lady who won't stop staring at her. Hilary soon begins to hallucinate, and she becomes Chana, a 13-year-old girl living during the wake of World War Two. The war develops and soon Hilary realizes that she is caught up in the very same thing she was trying to inflict on others: the Holocaust. Plagued with these memories of hunger, exhaustion, and terror, Hilary begins to resent her past actions and connect more with the woman who keeps staring at her; as if they somehow were one. Hilary wants to live-in both worlds-and apoligize in her own, but it could be too late. Chana's time could be up-and if that happens, so will Hilary's...