Kirkus Reviews wrote "Not just another child-in-war novel, this first novel strikes a particularly contemporary note in its unsentimental portrayal of the abuses of power and of a family's attempt to remain intact in adversity.",[4] and Publishers Weekly called it "An eloquent first novel.".[5]
^ ab"The Scott O'Dell Award". scottsdalelibrary.org. Scottsdale Public Library. Retrieved October 7, 2020.
^ abDeborah Stevenson (March 1989). "Announcement"(PDF). The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books. 42 (7). Johns Hopkins University Press: 163. Retrieved October 7, 2020.
^Kathleen T. Horning; Ginny Moore Kruse (1989). "17 Fiction For Teenagers". CCBC Choices(PDF). Cooperative Children's Book Center. p. 34. Retrieved October 7, 2020. The language of the narrative crackles with sharp images and understated terror; the phrasing seems to be from another culture