I read this book in grade school, before I knew much about WW II. I read this book and The Ark rather secretly, because my family and schoolteacher were of the penchant that the "Germans got what they deserved" and that German refugees weren't deserving of sympathy. I loved the book then, but was unable to find anything else that this author had written. Many years later I came across Rowan Farm in a used bookstore. Coincidentally, I ended up married to a German man from Berlin, whose grandparents had suffered terribly during the war and afterwards....I had also become an amateur historian, specializing in the first half of the 20th century. Reading Rowan Farm now was a delight, since I could better understand what was transpiring, and didn't have to read it secretly! It should be required reading of schoolchildren, so they can get a more balanced view of war--that there are no winners or losers, just people who suffer and endure, and in this case, find love no matter what.

In fifth grade, my class had to read this book. My teacher told us that it wasn't very well known but that it was absolutely wonderful. She was right. I don't remember much about the plot because it was so long ago, but I do remember being unable to put the book down. Everyone in my class loved it, and most read The Ark afterwards.

I read this book and The Ark 3 or 4 times each nearly 30 years ago when I was middle-school age. Ultimately books about the triumph of the human spirit,the author beautifully portrays the sacrifices, terrors, and love of a close family and their beloved animals during and immediately following WWII. Few adolescent books are as poignant as these. I'm so glad to see that at least one of them is still available. I hope that Amazon will find and start carrying The Ark as well.

...It took me quite awhile to get around to reading it, but after I started I couldn't stop!!! This book is a tale of a girl named Anemone who runs away from the injustice at her house when her father hires a new housekeeper. This housekeeper, Ilsebill, has a bratty son, Erwin, who gets Anemone blamed for everything, and all of her late mother's precious creatures begin to suffer as well. Aunt Gundula, a famous painter in the little town, takes in Anemone and turns her into a boy called Perdu, the perfect disguise. Soon though, everyone from Amenone's dog Winne to her Aunts Lena and Tina (who also come to stay with Aunt Gundula because of a mysterious mystery that their husbands are accused of having to do with) are wrapped up in a spellbinding mystery indeed. It is a mystery of an overpowering mayor, his counsels, a missing foolish virgin and watersprout from the cathedral, and a mysterious tyrant who died years ago. Now they must work to save the little town of Vogelsang, before it's too late! This is an excellent book and even though it is out of print and not a popular title, and though it is hard to explain the exact plot in only a few words, I encourage you to read it!! This book proves the old saying true: "Never judge a book by it's cover" !

This gently-paced novel is a bit of a sleeper, but charming in its homespun simplicity. The first portion of the book describes the difficult and painful existence of displaced German families--unwelcome refugees in their own country. THE ARK was written to enlighten American youth about the horrors of homelessness, separated families and unreasonable prejudice. This book contains no battle memories or war atrocities, but proves that German burocracy is second to none.

Since Mrs. Lechow, a small seamstress, has four children to house and feed, we are not sure for the first 100 pages which of them is the protagonist, as in modern YA novels. Gradually the activities focus on the older teens, Matthias and Margret, as they are weaned from their two upper rooms in Parsley Street to a farm with real animals and crops. The book particularly chronicles Margret's transformation from gawky teenager (privately mourning the death of her twin brother) into a capable farm woman like her mentor.

Before the War the German Railroad had offered old passengers cars for sale, which Mrs. Almut had purchased but not really used. Now it becomes the perfect place for the Lechow teens and is promptly christened, THE ARK. But how can it become a real home--which Margret is sure she will never have again--with half the family elsewhere--including their father, a POW in Russia? Will Margret learn to live with her personal loss, yet not be scarred for future happiness? This is an introspective gem for those who appreciate the importance of holding on to Family and learning how to release past Tragedy. So relax and savor the slower pace, the quiet humor, the cycles of the seasons for two years, and the ultimate time of harvest for the soul.

This classic children's book uses The Odyssey and post-World War II Germany as its basis. The Lechow family (Mother and four kids) have been forced from their family farm with the return of German land to Poland after World War II. With their father still lost in camps in Russia and the death of a fifth child still fresh in their minds, the Lechows have finally found a place to call a temporary home. They are sent to an elderly woman's home to take two rooms and at first fear that the older woman will not accept four children in their house. Luckily she grudgingly lets them stay the first night and never quite makes it to the housing office to force them out, eventually coming to love them. The family needs to find work or schooling for all, Margaret needs to find a place for herself alone now that her twin is dead, and Matthias aches to become an astronomer one day. The children's love for their parents and each other comes through clearly but without a lot of sentimentality.

THE ARK is one of the best books ever written. It has a gentle power to it that makes me glow when I read it and re-read it. It is a story of rebuilding, of finding a new home and a new place to belong. Hope is what this book is. Hope for the future. The Lechows make the best of less than desirable circumstances, finding goodness everywhere they can. The characters are well-developed and real. They take you with them on their emotional journeys and they stay with you after you read the final page. This is a book that deeply touched me. Simply put, it is just Beautiful.

As Americans, it's easy to see the Germans as the bad guys, but few books have explored what it was like for the average German in the "starving" years after the war. While this book's main plot centers on a troupe of actors struggling to keep theatre alive in an ancestral castle, tons of details are supplied about what it was like for those trying to get across the East/West German border (refugees wrapping themselves in white sheets during the winter so they wouldn't be seen against the snow) and what life was like for everyday "Joe Blows" of Germany from 1946-1950. Considered a controversial novel at the time it was written (mid '50s) because it "aired skeletons in the closet", this novel grows on you. I liked it better the second time I read it.

Castle on the borrder is set in postwar Germany on the new border drawn between East and West. A young actress,Leni, decides to come and help an elderly aunt and uncle make an old castle habitable for the winter. She enlists the aid of a troop of actors, who have no place to stay themselves. Leni has lost most of her family during the war, and in this old castle she rebuilds her life, falls in love and finds peace. A subplot is the care the actors give to refugees who hide in the castle cellar on their flight from East Germany to the West. I loved this book as a child, and all three of my grown daughters now want their own copies.