AFTER THE TRAIN

Reductive morality and characterizations muffle the meaningful core of this post–World War II identity crisis. Thirteen-year-old Peter lives in Rolfen, Germany, happily playing soccer and helping his architect father repair St. Mary’s Church, which was bombed by the Allies during the war. It’s 1955, and Peter’s teacher struggles to make his students comprehend Germany’s wartime deeds. When Peter, snooping at home, finds some hidden photographs that match his old nightmares of a strange woman, seasoned readers will immediately guess that Peter’s adopted, and Jewish. Peter himself is slow to understand, his comprehension dawning in an illogical order. Sometimes Whelan’s first-person narration sounds genuinely like it comes from Peter, other times it sounds instructional. Lessons arrive via Whelan’s idealized portrayal of Herr Shafer, an unceasingly wise, ever-noble Jewish Holocaust survivor who harbors zero bitterness. The author does a good job examining Peter’s identity and establishing the beautiful symbolism of laying bricks to restore buildings, but she oversimplifies Peter’s mother and glosses over both Herr Shafer’s losses and Peter’s father’s architectural-but-military service for the Third Reich. (Historical fiction. 8-12)