Jacob's Rescue

``Marissa squirmed in her seat with a stomach crying out for food,'' begins this fact-based novel about a Polish family that hides two Jewish brothers during WW II. Unfortunately, such prose frequently blunts the life-and-death urgency of Drucker and Halperin's subject matter as well as their evocation of the terror and courage of their protagonists. The most heroic gestures don't quite ring true--for example, Alex Roslan, the head of the Polish family, sells his apartment to the first person he meets when Jacob, one of the Jewish boys, needs an operation and a bribe is required to quiet the nurse. The authors, furthermore, often inject composition-class-style conclusions into their narrative (``The juxtaposition of amusement and death left him without words''). They are much better at the smaller moments: when Alex brings home a single white roll and gives it to Jacob, the boy avoids looking at Alex's little daughter (``She must hate me. . . . I guess I don't blame her''); one of Jacob's brothers joins him in hiding, and Jacob's relief quickly turns to jealousy. Enough of these moments exist to engage the reader's imagination, if not to infuse the story with unflappable authenticity. Ages 7-11. (May)