Anita Lobel is the author of No Pretty Pictures: A Child of War. First published in 1998 and a finalist for the National Book Award, the memoir details Lobel’s memories of growing up in Poland and how she survived World War II and the Holocaust. As the book follows Lobel from a child to a teen, it’s also a coming-of-age story and features themes about displacement and identity, as well as ideas like the differences between children’s and adults’ perspectives.

Lobel illustrates and writes children’s books, including On Market Street (1982) and Alison’s Zinnia (1990). Although some of her children’s books link to war, they tend to feature fun, playful pictures and storylines. As the memoir’s title indicates, this book differs from Lobel’s typical output. Lobel describes the violence and torment she experienced with a blunt and unsentimental voice.

The study guide uses the 1998 Avon edition of the book.

Content Warning: This study guide discusses traumatic violence and situations related to the Holocaust.

Summary

In the Prologue, Lobel speaks from her present perspective as an adult and outlines the basic twists and turns of her life. She was born in Krakow, Poland, and lived a comfortable life until Adolf Hitler and the Nazis invaded her country and perpetrated genocide. She thinks about how the violence and displacement were especially difficult for adults who, unlike children, had established lives and routines. Lobel rejects the victim label; she says her happy years outnumber the bad times she had as a child. Yet the purpose of her book is to relay her childhood experiences, and these reflections aren’t pretty.

For the book’s main parts—titled “Poland” and “Sweden”—the story adopts a child’s perspective; for these sections, it makes sense to refer to Lobel as Anita. Poland starts with five-year-old Anita living in Poland. It’s September 1939, and Nazi Germany has invaded Anita’s home country. World War II has begun, and her dad is gone. Jewish men face greater peril than Jewish women, and Anita’s mom secures false documents that state she’s not Jewish. Nazis visit Anita’s apartment and take valuables, like her mom’s furs and jewelry. The family’s two Polish servants leave, but Niania—Anita’s Catholic nanny—stays loyal even though she harbors antisemitic beliefs.

After some of Anita’s mom’s family members get deported—that is, sent to a concentration camp—Anita’s mom sends her, her little brother, and Niania to the country village Lapanow, where there are relatives of Anita’s dad. Christianity continues to intrigue Anita, but her family connects her to Judaism. They make her hide forbidden matzoh, unleavened bread, in her doll carriage.

Rumors of deportation compel Anita, her little brother, and Niania to move to Niania’s village. For security reasons, Niania pretends to be their mom, and Anita’s little brother turns into her little sister. Some villagers are nice to the trio and give them food. Other villagers are mean and dump a chamber pot on them.

Anita’s mom visits with bad news: Nazis took over the Jewish apartments in Krakow, and an uncle, aunt, and cousin now live in the ghetto—an isolated section of the city for Jews. Their mom’s appearance coincides with a visit from an ominous man, who suggests he could tell Nazis that there are Jews in the area. Anita’s mom gives the man jewelry to buy his silence, and everyone returns to Krakow.

Anita’s mom sneaks into the ghetto to be with her brother, so Anita and her little brother follow, and the family has to hide in a crowded space above an attic to avoid deportation. After a close call, Anita and her brother sneak out of the ghetto and reunite with Niania, who pretends Anita has an eye ailment so they can stay in a shelter run by nuns. Anita fixates on a nun bathing naked and becomes friendly with a bossy girl, Krysia, who dies from tuberculosis.

Shortly after Krysia’s funeral, Nazis invade the religious shelter and figure out Anita’s little sister is a boy. On a truck with other Jews, the siblings go to a prison and then to a concentration camp, Plaszow. Anita’s cousin, Raisa, has a relationship with an unnamed man, possibly a Nazi or a Nazi collaborator, so Anita can use an indoor bathroom and eat good food. Raisa bathes Anita in front of the unnamed man, so she becomes uncomfortable.

With the Allies—the countries fighting the Nazis—closing in, the Nazis force the prisoners to leave the concentration camp and go to another one. During the haphazard exodus, Anita’s aunt and cousin tell her to leave the group—Niania is waiting for her. Anita doesn’t believe them, so she sticks with the march and winds up at Auschwitz, one of the worst concentration camps, before boarding a boxcar train. Needing to use the bathroom badly, Anita climbs on top of the train to go. At another camp, Ravensbrück, the Nazis flee, and two Polish women look after the siblings until Allied soldiers rescue them.

The book’s second part, “Sweden,” takes place in Sweden, where Anita and her little brother recover from tuberculosis. Anita eats a lot, learns Swedish, and discovers Protestantism—a pared-down form of Christianity that the Catholic Niania dislikes. A man brings Anita Jewish books, and Anita screams at him and says she is Christian. More promising are the letters she receives from her mom, Niania, and her dad, who survived the war in Russia.

As Anita gets better, she’s transferred to a shelter for young Polish refugees near the psychiatric care facility. Her parents arrive and take her to a boardinghouse in Stockholm. Anita’s mom works at a factory that makes menstrual pads. Her dad used to own a chocolate factory, so he dislikes being an elevator attendant at a factory that makes men’s suits. While buying new shoes, her dad embarrasses her when he tries to bargain over the price.

Anita’s little brother recovers and joins them in Stockholm. Anita goes to school and excels, although she has trouble with gym and sports. In high school, she discovers her talent for drawing. She also finds out that Niania is dead due to a brain tumor, and she is upset that Niania chose not to live with them in Stockholm. Anita maintains her connection to Christianity and aversion to Judaism. She makes excuses to avoid going to Jewish temple.

At 15, Anita has friends and a relatively normal teen life. At 16, she and her family immigrate to America and settle in New York City. In the Epilogue, Lobel’s adult perspective returns. She says she identifies as an American, and her little brother is an American psychology professor. Her brother discovers the plan to leave the march was real and might have saved her cousin’s mother and father.

Lobel notes the large quantity of Holocaust books, films, discourses, and remembrances. She has no plans to visit the preserved concentration camps—they make her think of tourist attractions. Now, Lobel is a grandma and, overall, her life is good.