‘Stones in water’ by Donna Jo Napoli is a story about a boy who goes through hardship to find freedom and friendship after being abducted by Nazis in World War 2 after visiting the theatre. After their group of four got split into two, Roberto and Samuel were one of the groups, they worked hard as they travelled between camps working as slaves. One night Roberto got mugged of a boot, these boots kept him alive from the freezing nights; Samuel who later changed his name to Enzo for his safety gave Roberto his boots. Later that night Roberto found Samuel dead and in the mourning Roberto made a run for it. After a very long journey Roberto meet with a fellow Italian soldier who deserted the army, they set out for Romania. I chose this book because I like novels on experiences of World War 2 and it was highly recommended by the library.

One thing that I enjoyed about this novel is that it showed many values to learn from, things that we might take for granted. One of them is that friends is very important, in this novel if Samuel didn’t have any friends he would most likely be dead earlier on and if Roberto didn’t have a friend like Samuel he wouldn’t be alive and he would be near suicide as his morale would be desperately low, they also mentioned this “You’re a good friend, Roberto.” “So are you, Enzo. The best.” “I wish I could keep living, just to see this war through with you.” He smiled “how lucky I’ve been to have you for a friend”. On Roberto’s journey he met a young boy with no name who helped him even thought he didn’t understand Roberto, he helped him find food in the village that he was found and helped him escape when Germans shot him in the arm and held him captive. The fellow Italian soldier, Dr Maurizo helped Roberto recover from the bullet wound in his arm and gave him a share of his food.

Roberto’s courage shown in this novel was tremendous, Roberto escaping prisoner camps was the most risky thing Roberto had done, knowing he would be shot if not killed if anyone of the soldiers saw or get arrested by German civilians as they would of guesses he was an Italian slave. Everyone thought of escaping but only a few had and the only reason Roberto did it was to make Samuel proud. It wasn’t only shown when Roberto escaped but throughout his journey from the theatre to the boat with Dr Maurizo, for example when he and the doctor travelled on a boat down a river till they came across a patrol boat containing enemy soldiers, Roberto played as a native child holding a hostage. This was to pass anyone who became suspicious of them; this mentioned by the doctor “that was some stunt at Odessa. You surprised me. I don’t know why you did it, but you’ve sure got guts”.    

This is one of the best World War 2 experiences novels I have ever read, it is gripping, draws people in with the emotion especially when Samuel dies. Another time was when a German flings barbed wire into a little girl’s face as I felt sorry for her. The moments where the characters has a risk of getting killed has the pulling effect too as you don’t want the character killed. This novel made me appreciate life and friends, not to lose them as they are important. I seriously recommend this book to anyone who likes emotionally provoking books and who likes World War 2 novels.