Tuesday, July 29, 2008

The Boy Who Dared by Susan Campbell Bartoletti


Nay. This is a novelization of the story of Helmuth Huebner, one of the Hitler Youth she featured in her Newbery Honor book. While Hitler Youth was riveting and heartwrenching, this was very flat and cliched. I understand her desire to memorialize Helmuth, but this is not an award winner.

2 comments:

Deb Motley said...

I like that this is different than most Holocaust era books because it is not just a Jewish perspective. Someone other than a Jew was persecuted by the Nazis. And it explains why Germans were reluctant to stand up to the Nazis. That said, it wasn't a great book. Nay for me, too.

Elizabeth Norton said...

I wanted so much to love this book, but I just couldn't do it in the end. It was good, but not great, so Nay for me, three.