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The powerful new novel from master storyteller Katrina Nannestad, Waiting For The Storks, is a story about family lost and found, and the choices we make when we don’t have a choice at all.
“I don’t want to remember the truck, or the night I was taken, or the family I left behind. I am not a sad Polish girl. I am a good and happy German girl. I am. I am. I am.”
It’s the Second World War and Himmler’s Lebensborn Program is in full flight when eight-year-old Zofia Ulinski is kidnapped by the Germans. She has blonde hair and blue eyes, just like the other Polish children taken from their families and robbed of their names, their language, their heritage.
But when Zofia is adopted into a wealthy and loving German family, it is easier, it is safer to bury her past, deep down, so everything is forgotten. Until the Polish boy arrives. And the past comes back to haunt her.
Katrina Nannestad is the multi-award-winning author of We Are Wolves and Rabbit, Soldier, Angel, Thief.
Take a look at the reviews from our Young Readers for Waiting For The Storks by Katrina Nannestad below 
Book review from Kaitlyn, aged 12
This book was AMAZING!!!
I love it a lot because of the way Katrina Nannestad writes, it makes you feel like you are really there, it pulls you into the story, which is always enjoyable in a book. I have read some of her other books, and I loved them all, and this one is so good too. In fact, I enjoyed it so much that I couldn’t put it down and as a result, I finished it in one day!
Because I loved this book, there are so many positive points – here are a few (but no spoilers):
- The main character, Zofia/Sophia is utterly likeable, which enhances the story.
- The next chapter is mostly unpredictable, which just gives that urge to read on.
- Most of the chapters end in cliffhangers, which makes you continue reading.
This book is just so good, however, I would recommend it to slightly older readers just because of the theme, and setting of the book, war, children getting kidnapped etc.
Book review from Michael, 12
Zofia Ulinski is a young Polish girl with blue eyes and blonde hair, and, unfortunately, she is living at the time of the German invasion of Poland. She gets kidnapped and sent to an orphanage, where she and a lot of other Polish and Russian children are taught to be good German children. Zofia is luckier than most of the other kids, because she gets adopted by a wealthy German family and gets treated like a princess. She is able to forget about the orphanage and Poland, but only for a while. Then her whole world comes crashing down.
The book really lets you feel what the Polish orphans would have felt, through Zofia’s eyes. The story takes place in Poland and Germany in the days of the Second World War, starting before the war begins in 1938 and going through to the year after the war when the Polish orphans were sent back to their country. It is based on the true stories of the Polish orphans who were robbed of their heritage, country, name and culture during the Second World War.
This book is well written, it is very clear and concise, and has a lot to say about the Polish kids the Germans kidnapped to build the “Empire”. I would recommend it to anyone who likes a good book to sit down and read for a couple of hours. As soon as I started reading it, I was hooked. It is a wonderful book, and I love it.
Book review from Jonathan, aged 12
Waiting for the Storks is a great book by Katrina Nannestad. It follows the story of a young polish girl getting kidnapped by Germans due to her blonde hair and blue eyes. She is robbed of her name, language and heritage. After being converted to the “perfect German princess” and being adopted by a wealthy and loving German family, it is easier and safer to bury her past, leading to her forgetting everything she once knew. But then, a polish boy arrives, and the past comes back to haunt her.
Throughout the book, you see the oppression of the Germans over the places they controlled and took over throughout World War 2 and you see the effects of the war on both the kidnapped territory and on the people of Germany.
This book has an interesting and easy-to-follow story, with obvious links to real life. The story of the book has a lot of basis in fact and can teach you a bit about world history. The book also shows how small and tiny our problems today can be, compared to the problems that these people faced during this dark time. Throughout the book, we see what the people kidnapped go through and we see how their lives were changed and completely overridden, losing everything they once knew. This book teaches us a message and shows us what happened during World War 2.
Book review from Ellen, aged 13
I had the delightful opportunity to read Waiting for the Storks by Katarina Nannestad. Thank you to Kidspot who gave me this opportunity to read this fabulous book.
Waiting for the Storks’ setting is in Poland in WWII, where Germans have taken over. The main character, Zofia Ulinski, is an 8-year-old who loves playing games and learning about new stuff. Zofia lives with her parents and her Aunty Barbara before she is taken by the Germans because she has blonde hair and blue eyes. Zofia Ulinski is put in the back of a van with other Polish children who have been taken from their families, and have been stripped of their culture, language and even their names.
After all she has gone through she is adopted into a wealthy German family which helps her forget about her Polish past, until she meets the new Polish boy who has arrived, and her past comes back to bite her.
This book is about losing family members, family members going off to war and how badly kids were treated back in the war.
I recommend this to 11-15 year olds who like reading about war and history.
Book review from Olliver, aged 13
Waiting for the Storks is about a polish girl called Zofia Ulinski who is taken from her home by Nazis. Zofia is taken to a sort of boarding school and learns German culture and language. At the school, her name is changed from Zofia Ulinski to Sophia Ullman. She is adopted by a German family and forgets all about her polish life. Two years later a polish boy arrives as a slave on one of her friends’ farms and Sophia starts to remember her past.
This book is well-written for children of my age. I found it easy to read and the story was very interesting. I completed reading the book in two days as I wanted to find out what happened in the end. I hope others enjoy this book as much as I did.
Families were provided with a copy of the book for the purposes of the review. Views are those of the reviewers. This article contains information provided by HarperCollins.
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