Sunday, May 21, 2017

A Night Divided by Jennifer A. Nielsen

genre: middle grade historical fiction

Life isn't easy in post-WWII Eastern Berlin but when, overnight, a wall is built cutting her city in two, Gerta's life gets even harder. What's worse is that on the night the wall was built, Gerta's father and brother were on the western side of the city. Separated from her family and hating the constraints of life under the Stasi, Gerta is well aware of what even thinking of freedom can do. Soon, though, her repressed life has her willing to do anything to escape and be with her father again.

This is a good piece of middle grade historical fiction. Greta is a tough protagonist but realistic - she makes poor choices and has to deal with the consequences and her problems are very real. The harshness of the time period is rendered in such a way that you GET that is scary and horrible without things being overly graphic or upsetting. I liked the focus on her family and relationships and the escape story is harrowing and powerful. While it ended rather abruptly, all the way through I was rooting for Gerta and I'd bet other young readers will too.

1 comment:

Susan said...

Okay, I'm going to stop reading your blog now. All I'm doing is adding more books to my TBR mountain chain. It's already so long I'll never finish it in two lifetimes!

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...