Can anyone help me identify a half remembered book?

[JennyLane]

I remember reading a book as a tween. It was an "old" book then and this is probably twenty years ago.
I have a brief scattered memory of it.
I think it was set in, around or shortly after the Second World War
The family had moved to France and did not speak French.
I think the girl may have been named Sally or something beginning with S.
I remember a scene where she went to the shop to buy pencils and managed to correctly ask for cheaper Ones.
Her school work was returned to her covered in corrections as she didn't speak the language
They had a shared telephone line with half of the street.
Her teacher had a chipped tooth which she found delightful
She told someone to go boil their head.

This is nothing to go on. I'll be amazed if anyone manages to find anything, but it's a brain worm and it is so annoying I can't find it again!

Sounds like when Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit by Judith Kerr. In the book she's called Anna (is autobiographical).

There's more books in the series as well; another two or three.

The books start before the Second World War (the family were German and left first to Switzerland then France then England) and carried on through the Second World War and afterwards.

Yes, I'd agree that it sounds like When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit by Judith Kerr. I read it when I was little and then read it all again fairly recently with my daughter. The telephone line and chipped tooth and telling someone to boil their head don't ring bells with me, but the rest of it does.

I didn't know that there were more in the series Miranda. I'm going to have to look for those now.

Are they set in London?

I have never managed to read 'When Hitler stole Pink Rabbit' as a child or as an adult. There is a bit in the book that is so emotional that I have to stop reading. It's funny because 'The Tiger Who Came to Tea' was one of my favourite books as a child. On listening to Judith Kerr speaking both those books are based on a similar theme. I guess I'm just a wimp.

Definitely When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit!!

Do you remember the bit where she draws murals on a cafe(?) wall, and incorporates mirrors as children's hoops or something like that

That was in the second one I think (its name changed from when I first read it.

Here's the Wikipedia page with details of all the books (the second one was called "The Other Way Round" when I first read it)

Judith Kerr

I've just read the Wikipedia of it. It has ALOT of parallels but I'm certain it's not the same one. That being said this definitely looks like one I'll buy and put away for the kids!

I don't think it's "When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit" as I've read it recently. Similar, but not the same.

It rings a bell though, I'll have a think.

I've figured it out!
Yeah pretty impossible challenge as I seem to have blended when hitler stole pink rabbit (or something eerily similar) and Judy Blume's "starring sally freedman as herself"

Thanks for the help folks!

This is the cover of the one I had. It's all coming back.

I was going to say it sounded a bit like Sally J Freedman! That had a Jewish family in it too, but they lived in Florida, I think. Glad you figured it out!

Thanks @bookworm14 it has been chewing my brain for weeks!

I was going to ask if you were sure it was France as I was sure it was Sally Freeman

I remember Sally J. Freedman but didn't recognise it at all from the OP. Coincidentally I vividly remember being in a bookshop and having to chose between Sally and When Hitler...I chose Sally but always wondered if I made the right choice...Doeey bird made me slightly ragey.