More than one million of Hitler's victims were children. For many survivors who were liberated into a devastated Europe after World War II, anti-Semitism still prevailed and freedom was not about safety or happy homecomings. Such subject matter, for which Matas is best known, may seem unimaginable, but then, the author did not have to imagine it. The horror had already been imagined, had already been carried out, was real. Matas's goal as a novelist is to recreate actual human situations from the past and, through her storytelling, to challenge existing conditions and, perhaps, to bring about change.
Since the mid-1980s Matas has published some eighteen books for young readers. In addition to historical fiction, she has also written chapter books and fantasy-adventures, including two novels co-authored with her colleague Perry Nodelman. Yet for all her success as a novelist, Matas did not initially seek out a writing life. She wanted to be an actor, and studied English at the University of Western Ontario, from which she earned a bachelor's degree in 1969.
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