A unique look at a familiar period in history.
It is the 1920s, the age of Prohibition, the automobile, and the speak-easy. Even in rural Minnesota there is money to be made for anyone willing to bend the rules.
Nineteen-year-old Owen Jensen dreams of starting a car dealership. But when his father dies suddenly, it falls to him to run the creamery and take care of his family. Owen, refusing to let go of his dreams, seeks the help of Mr. Pengler, a local businessman and bootlegger. Owen quickly finds himself in over his head with the gangster. Unless he can figure out how to navigate the dangerous world of organized crime as well as the brutal winter, he will lose everything. This richly detailed look at the Roaring ’20s is vastly different from the usual cosmopolitan portrayal filled with flappers, jazz, and tommy-gun–toting gangsters. And unlike the larger-than-life characters that often populate those tales, Owen is a likable, complicated hero with the same desires and fears as his more modern counterparts. The pacing lags in places, but readers willing to stick with it will find reward in the end. Owen’s slice of northern Minnesota is a largely white one. An author’s note tells of the real events that inspired Owen’s story.
A unique look at a familiar period in history. (bibliography) (Historical fiction. 12-18)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8166-9417-4
Page Count: 264
Publisher: Univ. of Minnesota
Review Posted Online: June 27, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2016
A wartime drama with enough depth and psychological complexity to satisfy budding bookworms.
Three plucky orphan siblings are in search of a mother in wartime England.
When their grandmother dies, 12-year-old William, 11-year-old Edmund, and 9-year-old Anna are left in London in the care of an elderly housekeeper. As part of the World War II evacuation of children to safety, they are relocated to the countryside, something the family solicitor hopes may lead to finding adoptive parents. However, they are billeted with the Forresters, an unpleasant family reminiscent of the Dursleys. Bullying by their hosts’ two sons, who despise them; the ever present fear of German attack; and the dread of homelessness test their mettle to the limit. The orphans long to find a home of their own, and good boy William is stressed by his responsibility as head of the small family. Edmund’s desire for revenge against the Forresters and a prank involving a snake get them evicted from their billet, and they end up in a much worse situation. They find sanctuary in the village library and a savior in the librarian, who is married to a German and therefore ostracized by the locals. Mrs. Müller provides them with moral support, a listening ear, and true appreciation and love. The classic books she chooses for them—The Wind in the Willows and Anne of Green Gables, among others—may generate ideas for further reading. All characters are White.
A wartime drama with enough depth and psychological complexity to satisfy budding bookworms. (reading list) (Historical fiction. 12-16)Pub Date: Feb. 2, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-8234-4705-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Margaret Ferguson/Holiday House
Review Posted Online: Nov. 16, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
A bone-chilling tale not to be ignored by the universe.
If Anne Frank had been a boy, this is the story her male counterpart might have told. At least, the very beginning of this historical novel reads as such.
It is 1939, and Yanek Gruener is a 10-year old Jew in Kraków when the Nazis invade Poland. His family is forced to live with multiple other families in a tiny apartment as his beloved neighborhood of Podgórze changes from haven to ghetto in a matter of weeks. Readers will be quickly drawn into this first-person account of dwindling freedoms, daily humiliations and heart-wrenching separations from loved ones. Yet as the story darkens, it begs the age-old question of when and how to introduce children to the extremes of human brutality. Based on the true story of the life of Jack Gruener, who remarkably survived not just one, but 10 different concentration camps, this is an extraordinary, memorable and hopeful saga told in unflinching prose. While Gratz’s words and early images are geared for young people, and are less gory than some accounts, Yanek’s later experiences bear a closer resemblance to Elie Wiesel’s Night than more middle-grade offerings, such as Lois Lowry’s Number the Stars. It may well support classroom work with adult review first.
A bone-chilling tale not to be ignored by the universe. (Historical fiction. 12 & up)Pub Date: March 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-545-45901-3
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Dec. 25, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2013
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