Run, Boy, Run., By: Bloom, Susan P., Horn Book Magazine, 00185078, Nov/Dec2003, Vol. Recounting how Srulik reconnects with his past and his Jewishness may be Orlev's greatest triumph in this novel of heartbreaking resilience. Orlev does not indulge us in feelings even when Srulik must have his arm amputated because a Christian doctor had earlier refused him treatment. Orlev shows the reader how well Srulik learns his father's lesson to stay alive, but also how resistant he is - how painful it is - to remember his Jewishness once the war ends. His father admonishes him to stay alive, to adopt Christian ways, to forget everything except that he is a Jew his father then sacrifices his life to save his son's. In a scene of surreal horror, Srulik sees his father hiding in a potato field, also on the run in the countryside. He was too busy looking for food and water and observing everything around him." A likable redhead, Jewish Srulik transforms himself into orphaned Christian Jurek, winning the hearts of the many Poles who decide to take him in. "In daytime, he rarely thought of his friends or felt lonely. We learn what happens, but we must construct our feelings about those happenings for ourselves. Part of the strength of Orlev's writing rests with its spareness: like his protagonist, Orlev does not waste words he resists embellishment. In this novel based on a Holocaust survivor's account, Srulik, a nine-year-old boy on the run in the Polish countryside, learns from his encounters with an assortment of strangers that he cannot reveal himself as Jew.