I Am David

This article is about a 1963 children's novel. For the 2003 film adaptation, see I Am David (film).

I am David / North to Freedom (US title)
Author(s)	Anne Holm
Original title	Danish
Translator	L. W. Kingsland
Cover artist	Kelly Eismann (in American version)
Country	Denmark
Language	Danish
Genre(s)	Children's, historical novel
Publisher	Gyldendal EgmontUK
Publication date	1963
Media type	Print (hardback and paperback)
Pages	239 (in American version)
ISBN	ISBN 0-15-205161-9 (first English edition, hardback)
OCLC Number	54006814
LC Classification	PZ7.H7322 Iae 2004

I am David is a fiction book written by Anne Holm in 1963. In the United States, the book was at first called North to Freedom, but it is now also being published as "I am David". It tells the story of a young boy who, with the help of a prison guard, escapes from a concentration camp in Eastern Europe in Bulgaria, and journeys to Denmark. Along the way he meets interesting people and has many adventures. It was made into movie film in 2003.

The book, originally written in Danish, has been translated into several languages, including Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish and German (all 1963), Dutch (1964), English (1965), Afrikaans (1981), French (1986) and Frisian (1987).

Plot

This book starts with David talking to a guard in a concentration camp in Bulgaria. David receives instructions from this man for his escape, including instructions to travel to Salonika, and then to Denmark. Believing the man. is using him to escape, himself, David resolves to just run until his eventual capture. He searches for a bundle the man has hidden, and finds a bottle of water, a loaf of bread, a pocketknife, and a compass.

As he travels through the countryside, he adapts the mindset of a hunted animal, sleeping by day and traveling at night. He eventually, during the first stage of his escape, hitches a ride to Salonika on a truck. After he arrives in Salonika (Thessaloniki), he sneaks onboard a ship bound for Italy. He hides in a cargo hold, and eats some bread and drinks some 'water' he finds in a bottle. The water turns out to be wine, and David falls asleep in a drunken stupor and gets raped by a woman.

When he wakes up, a sailor is standing above him, angry because the wine was his. Through his knowledge of languages picked up at the camp, David communicates with the sailor. Eventually, the sailor secretly lowers David over the side in a life belt, because of the boy's eyes. With the help of the sailor David gets ashore. The beauty of Italy encourages him to want to live and complete his journey. Then he sets out for Denmark and meets many helpful people along the way.

David decides he needs a God. After much careful consideration, he chooses the god of another man, also named David, who said of his God, "He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; He leadth me beside the still waters."

He saves a girl named Maria from a fire in a shed, where she was trapped. In the end, he spends a month or two in Maria's family's house, where he learns many new words that he had not known the meaning of. He would have spent more time there, but the mother and father were starting to get a weird feeling about David.

While in Switzerland, a woman, Sophie Bang, asks to paint him, and he accepts. He stays overnight at Sophie's house and sees a picture of his mother who lives in Denmark.

During the winter, David is in the Alps and almost dies. He gets "saved" by a farmer, but is blackmailed into working for the farmer the whole winter. He sleeps in the barn where he meets a sheepdog that he names King. They escape the farm and continue on their journey. During this time David also discovers some secrets of his past like why the guard helped him escape and what happened to his parents.

When David is almost in Denmark, he is careless and stumbles across a barrack of soldiers. He believes he will be caught. But King jumps out and sacrifices himself, causing a disturbance for David to slip away.

When he gets to Denmark, he finds his mother while he is exhausted and unable to say much more than his name.

Awards

• Crystal Heart Award
• Heartland Film Festival
• Lewis Carroll Shelf Award
• American Library Association Notable Book
• Best Scandinavian Children's Book
• Boys Club of America Junior Book Award Gold Medal

Release details

• David, [København] Gyldendal, 1963 (first edition)
• I am David, Orlando, Fla. : Harcourt, 2004, ISBN 0-15-205161-9 (hc), ISBN 0-15-205160-0 (pbk)
• The best Scandinavian children's book awarded in 1995

External links

• Review by Readingmatters.co.uk

References

• Gale Children's Literature Review, vol. 75, 136-141
• Gale Contemporary Authors, vol. 17
• Kraks Blaa Bog (Danish Who's Who) 1998