On October 26, 1956, as nine-year-old Bobbie Kalman was walking home from school, she saw truckloads of dead and wounded people being taken into the hospital. Bobbie was terrified! What had happened? And where was her family?

The book begins in Bobbie’s hometown of Mosonmagyarovar, Hungary, where a peaceful protest against the Communist government was met with violence by the Hungarian secret police—over 100 people were killed and more than 200 wounded. Bobbie’s family was in total panic trying to account for all their family members.

In the days after the massacre, the Soviet army left Hungary, and Hungarians dared to hope. Bobbie’s hometown, which is close to the Austrian border, suddenly became a way station for hundreds of journalists from the West. But less than a week later, the Soviet tanks came back, and the Revolution was crushed. A tank stood right in front of Bobbie’s home! The Kalmans then made the momentous decision to leave Hungary and live in freedom. With that decision, Bobbie became a “refugee child.”

Part memoir, part history, Refugee Child is the only book that looks at the Hungarian Revolution through a child’s eyes. Along with Bobbie’s own story, the book includes a history of the 1848 and 1956 Hungarian Revolutions and describes what life was like under oppressive Communist rule. Through moving poems, Bobbie also examines universal themes such as freedom, fear, secrets and lies, power and force, betrayal, human rights, courage, loss, dreams, truth, and love.

From the dust jacket