THE ROMA
by the almost universal hatred that greeted the Roma, who maintained their own culture and traveled in caravans at a time when almost no one traveled. They were attacked, expelled, imprisoned, and even enslaved. The first enslaved people taken to America—by Columbus—were Roma. During World War II, from several hundred thousand to a million Roma were murdered or transported to extermination camps, including Auschwitz. Today most Roma are settled, but they do not have it easy. Their children in Sweden were not permitted in public schools until 1959. Although caravans are uncommon, stronger British trespassing laws were directed at them in 2022. Traveling widely, Potter is perhaps too focused on recording unpleasant encounters, but she is not shy about pointing out Romani celebrities and cultural achievements. Spanish flamenco is one, as are, despite the names, Franz Liszt’s Hungarian rhapsodies and Johannes Brahms’ Hungarian dances."
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This nonfiction title traces Roma history from its roots in ancient India through centuries of migration across continents, and it doesn't soften the harder half of that story — discrimination and pe...
Our Review
This nonfiction title traces Roma history from its roots in ancient India through centuries of migration across continents, and it doesn't soften the harder half of that story — discrimination and persecution against Romani communities get direct, honest treatment rather than a footnote. At 272 pages, aimed at readers 12 to 18, there's enough room to hold both halves properly: what was done to Romani people, and what Romani communities built and kept anyway, in music, storytelling, and custom, across wildly different countries.
Cultural celebration and hard history sit next to each other here without either one canceling out the other, which is exactly the balance a subject like persecution and stereotyping needs for a teen reader old enough to hold complexity. What a reader takes from this is more than a timeline — real appreciation for a culture that most world history units skip past entirely. A strong choice for a teen doing independent research on a group rarely centered in the curriculum, and just as useful for anyone who wants their sense of European history widened past the usual names.
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