#20--Soldier X by Don Wulffson

Have I ever told you that I love historical fiction?

Not only to I love the stories that are expected from history, but I love those unexpected gems that pop up every once in awhile (Code Name Verity and Between Shades of Gray, to name a few).

Soldier X has been in my book talk rotation for several years now, but I have never had the chance to read it--since it is usually off the shelf and I have yet to have a student come to me after reading this book and tell me they didn't like it.  So, I decided that I needed to read it this summer....and it just so happens that I had a copy of this book in my "books removed from the library, but I still want to read" pile (it was in ratty condition and unable to be repaired anymore, so I had taken it out of the collection), so I grabbed it for part of my vacation reading.

The book opens with an old man, Professor Erik Brandt, explaining that his student had often asked him about his prosthesis and other injuries...to which he replied that he received the injuries while fighting in World War II in the woods in Russia....but he never tells his students that he was fighting for the Germans.

Erik is 16 and a member of Hitler Youth when he is sent to the Eastern front in 1944.  Growing up in a bilingual household of German and Russian, the Germans plan to use his skills to help interrogate Russian prisoners.  (Erik's deceased father was German and his mother and maternal grandparents, who helped raise him, are Russian.)  During his first days of battle, most of his friends and platoon are decimated.  He is stuck in a trench, behind enemy lines, with a dead Russian soldier about his age.  In a split-second decision, Erik decides that his only chance at survival is to exchange clothing with the dead Russian and try to pass as a member of Russia's army.  Because of injuries sustained during the battle, Erik is taken to a Russian hospital, where he is thought to be a Russian soldier with amnesia and is given the name X.  At the hospital he falls in love with a young Russian nurse named Tamara.

Not only is X able to pass as a Russian soldier, he is able to make friends on this side of the war as well.

In some ways this book reminded me of Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front due to its easy ability to wipe away the romance of war and to simply demonstrate the vast evil of it.  This book would be a great way to introduce students to a different viewpoint of the war, as well as be a great discussion starter for loyalty and the justness of war.

I will definitely be keeping this one in my book talk rotation and use it to try to spark my reluctant readers!

Happy Reading!!

#15--Bomb: The Race to Build--and Steal--the World's Most Dangerous Weapon by Steve Sheinkin

The two months since my last post have flown by...I've been planning an August wedding (we got engaged on Easter, so we have a quick turn-around!) and have finally found time to read again with most of the planning taken care of at this point.  :)

After several people praised Bomb, I had to pick it up and give it a go.  It had several things going for it that made me want to read it (other than all the recommendations I received)....it is about history, it is about spies, and it is about advanced science that is accessible to my level of science--which means, it is accessible to a middle school science student. :)  (I find science fascinating, yet rather intimidating, so for nuclear fission to be made accessible to me is awesome!!)

The book opens in May of 1950 with two FBI agents arriving at Harry Gold's home in Philadelphia to search it for evidence of spying for the Soviets.  Gold finally admits to spying and says he needs to tell the whole story.  The story continues with how Harry (as well as others) got pulled into spying for the Soviets. 

In 1938 a German chemist named Otto Hahn discovered that he could cause uranium atoms to split, physicists around the world began to experiment with this new phenomenon.  Albert Einstein wrote a letter to President Roosevelt in 1939, encouraging him to begin funding research on building a bomb with this new knowledge, as Hitler and the Germans were certainly working toward that same end.  Should Hitler attain this powerful weapon first, the war would be over and Germany would be the victors. 

Once the United States began their research in earnest, Robert Oppenheimer was named the director of the Manhattan Project (the name for the American's bomb project).  Oppenheimer began to recruit top scientists from across the country, many who were European Jews who had escaped Hitler's massacre.  Once the top secret research was started, not only were the Germans trying to get their hands on the information that the Americans had, but Stalin and the KGB were even more insistent on getting the information.  So much so that the KGB was actually able to find individuals working on the Manhattan Project who were supportive of Russia and Communism and willing to give highly classified information over to the Soviets.

When President Truman dropped the bomb on Hiroshima, Stalin was furious that the American's had beat him.  By August 29, 1949, the Russians had their first successful atomic bomb, which ignited the Cold War. 

While I knew some of the details about the Manhattan Project and the dropping of the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  However, I did not know most of the details of the race between Germany, Russian and the United States to be the first to build an atomic weapon, and even less of the spying that went on to accomplish it.  I had heard of several of the big names: Robert Oppenheimer, the Rosenbergs, and Moe Berg, but beyond those names, everyone else was a new character to me who was fascinating to learn about.

This book is definitely going to go into my book talk rotation for nonfiction for next year!!

Happy Reading!!

#30--Radical Integrity: The Story of Dietrich Bonhoeffer by Michael Van Dyke

Ever year when I attend New Wilmington Mission Conference, I purchase several books at the book store....and I rarely read them before I go back the next year.  Until this year.  This year I purchased a few books, and I've already finished one of them....today's post.  As I have said before, I'm fascinated by the time period of World War II, and events leading up to it.  I've had a vague inkling of who Dietrich Bonhoeffer was for years, but never really gave him much thought until I picked up Radical Integrity.  I knew he was a German theologian who was killed by the Nazis and is widely quoted and studied at seminaries.  Beyond that, I didn't know much about him.

Radical Integrity begins with Dietrich's arrest by the Gestapo for his part in the plots to assassinate Adolf Hitler.  But then we learn about his early years and his family.  The book follows Dietrich through university, pastoring a German church in Spain, and through the rest of his life, including his struggle with joining the resistance against Hitler and the Nazis.  Bonhoeffer was just 39 when the Nazis hanged him for his part in the resistance.  Yet, his legacy lives on in his writings.

I found myself going back and re-reading passages, sometimes for better comprehension and other times because what was said was so compelling.  I even found myself making slight marks with a pencil in my copy of the book--something I rarely do. 

Van Dyke does an excellent job of intertwining passages from Bonhoeffer's own writings with the narrative.  I will definitely be keeping this on my shelf, and will hopefully refer back to it when I have struggles of faith of my own to deal with. 

Happy Reading!