As a five-year-old in Poland, Stefania loved to dance, but war came and her father went away to fight. Then she and her mother were sent to work camps in Siberia. The two struggled through until they were released and allowed to travel south again. But now her mother is sick and Stefania must leave her. At the parting Stefania drops one of her precious dancing slippers. She holds on to her one remaining slipper as a link to home and her parents as she is finally sent to the other side of the world - NZ. At the age of twelve, Stefania finally hears news of her parents and there is a reunion but it's not a totally happy ending. Her mother had returned to Poland and now that country is closed.

 

There are 32 pages in this book. This book was published 2007 by Scholastic New Zealand Limited .

Jennifer Beck is the author of many titles, including The Bantam and the Soldier, Nobody's Dog and A Present from the Past. Lindy Fisher's first work for Scholastic NZ Ltd was Nobody's Dog, a stunning, studied and careful work that broke new ground in illustrating, and which was shortlisted for the 2006 NZ Post Awards, as was their second collaboration, A Present from the Past in 2007. With this new project she has worked with Jennifer again to ensure complete accuracy, believing that historical topics must be well researched and credible.