Jeska is eleven, still likes to play with a small doll that fits in her pocket, and loves to daydream. She has a vivid imagination, and loves sharing it with her best friend Lienke as they enjoy crafts, and making things.

Jeska enjoys school in her small town in the Netherlands and lives with her mum, dad and 16 yr old sister. One day her teacher asks his students to get their history books out of their desks. They are about to study World War II. Jeska doesn’t know anything about this war, but soon realises it was a huge part of her family history.

Her Bomma (Grandmother) has been moved into a retirement home nearby because of her deepening dementia, and after a visit with her mum, Jeska is left with questions. Bomma mistook her for someone called Hesje. Who is Hesje?

Jeska tries asking her mother, despite already knowing her mum won’t answer. Mum is a serious person, with many rules for her two daughters. She often closes the curtains of her house, and plays Mozart on the record player when she returns home from her work as a nutritionist. Dad says she does it when the world around her is becoming too much.

Jeska’s unanswered question burns a hole in her curiosity, and with her history lessons at school, a sneaky look at Dad’s encyclopedias and a trip to the library, she begins pulling clues and information together. A secret visit to Bomma on her own reveals more. Bomma is acting more strangely every day, believing she is somewhere else – standing on a platform, waiting for a train.

A borrowed copy of Anne Frank helps Jeska understand even more of Bomma and Mum’s past. But she didn’t think they were even Jewish?

This is a beautifully written story (based on true events and the author’s family) through the eyes of an 11 year old girl. Jeska’s inquisitive and imaginative mind is piqued by a name given to her by her grandmother in error, and she sets out to learn more. As Jeska learns about WWII at school and slowly reveals her family’s connection to it, she begins to understand her mother’s strange behaviours, strict rules and serious nature.

I’ll Keep You Close is written in short chapters of events in Jeska’s daily life, whether it be playing with a neighbourhood cat in her garden or planning to save a favourite tree with her friend. Woven between these day-to-day happenings are Jeska’s thoughts on what she is piecing together about her family history. A photo in the rear of the book left me quiet and sombre, regardless of how much I already knew about the Holocaust.

I’ll Keep You Close is not only a reminder of this terrible time in history, but a personal insight of intergenerational trauma – and how to move forward while keeping the memories close.

Author – Jeska Verstegen

Age – 10+

See family video clips found after the war of the real Hesje at play here

(2022, Allen & Unwin, WWII, Anne Frank, Family, School, Friendship, Grief, Growing up, Historical, Secret, War, Grandmother’s Memories, Alzheimer’s Disease, Dementia, Retirement Home, Old Folks Home, Photo Album, World War II, Second World War, Germany, Netherlands, Study, Death Trains)