Materials from Germany
When 16-year-old Helmuth Hubner listens to the BBC news on an illegal short-wave radio, he quickly discovers Germany is lying to the people. But when he tries to expose the truth with leaflets, he’s tried for treason. Sentenced to death and waiting in a jail cell, Helmuth’s story emerges in a series of flashbacks that show his growth from a naive child caught up in the patriotism of the times, to a sensitive and mature young man who thinks for himself.
Based on a true events, this inspiring picture book tells the story of an American family who establishes contact with a German family after World War II and sends them a package of much-needed supplies, including shoes.
A girl’s escape from Nazi Germany.The city Eva Bentheim once adored is no longer familiar. A swastika is emblazoned on the flag atop the City Hall. Teachers, family, and friends are beginning to disappear. Her father seems gone in a different way; he has become ill, fragile, and despondent as the Nazis gain power. When things get worse, Eva’s mother desperately tries to obtain the proper papers for her family to leave the country. Then a horrible night of roundups occurs and Eva’s father is taken away. A nocturnal search begins for someone who can help release him from the city jail. Eva’s boyfriend, Arno, may have a way to save her father from deportation, but it soon becomes clear that their struggles have just begun. Exquisitely felt and written, Walk the Dark Streets resonates with the indomitability of the human spirit even as a loving family’s attempts to stay together grow more and more hopeless.
Baer’s previous novel, A Frost in the Night, relates earlier episodes in the lives of the family in Walk the Dark Streets.
Ten-year-old Bamse and his Jewish friend Anton participate in the Danish Resistance during World War II.
Can a knight sacrifice everything he holds sacred in service to his king? King Richard is being held for ransom in Germany, and England is in chaos without a sovereign. The de Granvilles must deliver the treasure that will win their King’s freedom.
But the Old Man of the Mountain, leader of the Assassins, is ready to take his revenge on Kamil. To do so he will orchestrate a great betrayal, and his tentacles of treachery reach far and deep. Kamil is determined to prevail—the Old Man must not win.
The fate of a king, the bonds of a friendship, and the depth of an enduring love will all be in jeopardy as Will, Ellie, Kamil, and Hosanna face the ultimate loyalty test, and their final battle.
During the closing months of World War II, a fifteen-year-old German girl must decide whether or not to help an escaped Russian prisoner of war, despite the serious consequences if she does so.
See the review at WOW Review, Volume 3, Issue 4
Trying to make sense of the horrors of World War II, Death relates the story of Liesel — a young German girl whose book-stealing and story-telling talents help sustain her family and the Jewish man they are hiding, as well as their neighbors.
Awards
USBBY Honor Book
Take a closer look at The Book Thief as examined in WOW Review.
Eight-year-old Jeanne was the only one of her family to survive the 1994 Rwanda genocide. Then a German family adopted her, and her adoptive mother now tells Jeanne’s story in a compelling fictionalized biography that stays true to the traumatized child’s bewildered viewpoint.
Featured in Volume I, Issue 4 of WOW Review.
In 1993, as Hitler becomes Chancellor, twelve-year-old Erich and his family, who are Jewish, find they need to make changes in their everyday lives as hatred of the Jews grows.
Boy hero Tom, Hugo the Averagely Spooky ghost, and famed ghoul hunter Hetty Hyssop have formed an agency dedicated to dealing with difficult apparitions. No spook can defeat them until their too close encounter with a Gruesome Invincible Lightening ghost.