37 Days at Sea aboard the M.S. St. Louis, 1939

Set in May 1939, this novel in verse follows twelve-year-old Ruthie Arons, who travels with her parents aboard the M.S. St. Louis. Nearly one thousand German-Jewish passengers are bound for Cuba in hopes of escaping Nazi Germany. Ruthie worries about the grandmother left behind in Breslau and about her father’s health. When the ship is refused permission to dock in Havana and Ruthie and her friend Wolfie find a Nazi aboard, she must act.