Review: December 2007–January 2008

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Best Books for Yound Readers, 2007

In 1993 an American caver named Christos Nicola, exploring a maze-like Ukrainian cave south of Kiev, was startled to find hand-built rock walls, old shoes, buttons, and other signs of human habitation. Four years later, he tracked down the cave’s inhabitants: three families of Jews, now living in the United States and Canada, who hid in the cave during the Nazi occupation.

The Secret of Priest’s Grotto, a photo-illustrated book, interleaves an account of an expedition to the cave with the story of the families who hid there. Living underground in the seventy-seven-mile-long cave for nearly a year (after five months in a smaller cave), the Jews suffered hypothermia, malnutrition, and sensory deprivation. But the greatest danger was other people. When Ukrainian peasants realized Jews were hiding in Priest’s Grotto, they worked for days with picks and shovels to block the entrance. Only two former neighbors remained trusted friends. Had Nicola not been curious about an old shoe and a few buttons, we might never have heard the survivors’ story.