Halinka girl Quotes

The girls (in Halinka’s room) are 12 (well they’re in two grades so I’d guess different ages by at least a year) but they did seem a bit younger to me. Maybe 10? Maybe 11? Given their backgrounds and circumstances and given that this is historical fiction and not contemporary, I guess they could seem a bit younger to me than they are.

Halinka has been put in the home after being removed from her mother who was neglectful, Halinka also suffered physical abuse but it is not clear if this was from her mother or her mother’s boyfriends.

The story is about the day to day life in the home. Halinka struggles to make friends and finds it hard to trust. It is sensitively written and you feel for Halinka who seems to have had little joy or kindness in her life.

Halinka’s attempts to stay strong and find some joy in her Spartan existence ring true. At first she stays aloof from everyone, keeping her thoughts and inside her head and sharing them only with her secret book and a beloved aunt whom she occasionally visits.