Petr Sís comes after the book The Wall with another illustrated story from the history of Nicky and Vera. Filled with typical watercolour paintings and pen drawings, the book tells the story of young Nicholas Winton, who finds himself in a situation where others are in danger and, like a true hero, decides to take action. He describes how he managed to save over 650 children by transporting them to England through adoption. Among the children is little Vera, who tells how her parents decide to send her away for fear of the events to come. Little Vera also recalls that other parents make similar decisions and that her relatives were on the last train leaving the Czech Republic. However, the train was stopped at the border and the children on board could not be saved.
After seven years, Vera decides to return to the Czech Republic and discovers that none of her family survived the war. After a few years, she returns to England to her adopted family, finds a partner and starts her own family. A similar fate befell many children who did not meet their saviour for the first time until many years later.
Nicholas Winton never told anyone about his heroism. He was an ambulance driver and an RAF officer during the war. It wasn't until decades later, while clearing land, that his wife Greta found records and documents of more than six hundred children who had found new homes thanks to Nicky. She therefore passed the story on to historians and in 1988, the elder Nicolas was interviewed on a BBC programme about the children whose lives he had saved by transport. Vera was sitting right next to Nick on the programme that day.
The two stories, which intersect at the end of the book, are accompanied by Peter Sís's typical illustrations. The delicate pictures evoke the anxious pre-war atmosphere and sensitively bring to life the long journey that over 650 children had to take. Although this is the sad story of Vera's family, Petr Sís' paintings mainly illustrate the freedom and hope that the journey away from their parents represents for the children. The story of the humble hero Nick is easily digestible and understandable for children. At the end of the book, the author himself explains how he learned about Nick's story as a child and why he decided to work on it.
Josefína Báčová
SÍS, Petr. Nicky a Věra. Praha: Labyrint 2021.
The review was created at the Department of Journalism of FSV UK under the supervision of PhDr. Jana Čeňková, Ph.D.