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Sweet revenge is the mission and Avrom intends on achieving it through Freddie’s body and voice as he takes over the puppet act in order to publicly search for his murderer in each new city they play. Avrom, not yet 13, was brutally murdered by a Nazi bounty hunter.

Freddie becomes possessed by a dybbuk (the Jewish ghost of a boy, Avrom Amos, with an unfinished mission). In post-WWII Europe, The Great Freddie, an American gentile who is a mediocre ventriloquist, performs in clubs around the continent. Ages 9-14.Amidst the plethora of mostly depressing Holocaust children’s and YA literature, Fleischman introduces an ingenious approach to the topic and issues.

Girls with ribbons in their hair, why not?' " Fleischman inserts horrific factual details of Nazi brutality, and yet his message about bearing witness may be submerged beneath the sensational story line. Here is Avrom Amos giving Freddie a history lesson: "You didn't hear told his Nazi meshuggeners, those lunatics, 'Soldiers of Germany, have some fun and go murder a million and a half Jewish kids? All ages! Babies, fine.

The dybbuk's voice will shock some readers he speaks in embittered, Yiddish-inflected English that drives home his point. He wants to track down the infamous SS colonel who not only killed him but also tortured children, including his sister, and before long, the dybbuk co-opts Freddie's act and his interviews to spread the word about the SS colonel. But Avrom Amos has his own agenda, as Freddie knows. The dybbuk makes good on his promise, and Freddie's act becomes the toast of Paris. Avrom Amos is a dybbuk, a wandering soul or ghost, and, by demonstrating how he might speak for Freddie's wooden dummy, Avrom Amos convinces Freddie to let him lodge within Freddie. And then Avrom Amos Poliakov shows up rather, takes over. The "Great Freddie" is a decorated GI, an orphan who has stayed in Europe and, by 1948, has found a toehold as a ventriloquist. Traveling into territory more commonly associated with Isaac Bashevis Singer, Newbery Medalist Fleischman (The Whipping Boy) draws attention to the especially cruel treatment of Jewish children during the Holocaust.