KIRKUS REVIEWS
DECEMBER 15, 1995

Szablya, Helen M. & Peggy King Anderson

THE FALL OF THE RED STAR

Boyds Mills (166 pp.)
$15.95
Jan. 1996
ISBN: 1-56397-419-3

A gripping account of the Hungarian uprising of 1956. Szablya, who escaped from Hungary during the revolution, and Anderson (Safe At Home, 1992, etc.) tell the story of Stephen, a 14-year-old freedom-fighter whose father was taken away years before. Memories of that trauma haunt his dreams, but his waking hours are even more of a nightmare as he learns to face death and to kill.

With an unerring ability to convey the reality of Stephen's hopeless cause without wallowing in excessive gore, the authors effectively portray the street battles, the lurking in basements, the casual and senseless brutality and destruction, and yet the humanity of both the oppressed and the oppressors. It is an intimate story; Stephen and his family and friends struggle to win, to survive, and ultimately lo escape, but only hints of the larger sweep of events penetrate the ruined buildings of their Budapest neighborhood. A pageturner from beginning to end, Stephen's story is a powerful introduction to an important event in history. (map, glossary) (Fiction, 12+)

Booklist :

Gr. 7-9. Fourteen-year-old Stephen, an aspiring 
musician, becomes a freedom fighter in the Hungarian rebellion 
against the Soviets in 1956. He and his friends learn to make Molotov
cocktails, kill (despite agonizing remorse), and make coffins and 
bury the dead. 
Stephen's personal life is also in an uproar: he helps deliver his 
sister Maria's baby, and his father returns after being in prison 
for years. 
There's a thrilling escape, based on the experiences of Szablya's 
family, with Stephen's family fleeing by truck, by boat, and on foot 
through a swamp. 
The authors do a good job of conveying the horrors of modern-day 
urban warfare, which turns familiar surroundings into a battle zone, 
and readers learn some recent history as well as gain poignant insight
into the making of everyday heroes. 
Glossary included.  Susan Dove Lempke  
Copyright© 1996,
American Library Association.  All rights reserved 
Horn Book :
During the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, fourteen-year-old Stephen 
joins the resistance movement fighting communist rule. During the 
uprising, he kills a man, helps his sister deliver her baby in a dark 
basement, receives a serious wound, and makes a dramatic escape 
to Vienna with his family. The novel has a distinctive setting and 
sustains tension throughout.
-- Copyright © 1996 The Horn Book, Inc. All rights reserved. 
Synopsis:
This fast-moving novel of the Hungarian Revolution is based on the true-life 
account of the Szablya family's dramatic struggle for freedom. At the heart 
of the novel is 14-year-old Stephen, who as a boy saw his father taken by 
the police. Knowing only Communism, Stephen finds himself in an uprising 
in 1956. Now his family must make a run for the border.  
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