I have one word for this novel: Rubbish.
1 star
Here are my main issues with this book:
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The protagonist is 9-years old at the start; he's the child of a high-ranking Nazi official. Despite the fact his SISTER, who starts as 12-years old, knows what's happening, he has zero clue. Now, having worked with children, I'm about 100% certain if ONE child knows what's going on, then the OTHER child knows; it also makes no sense how he's so clueless about what his father does.
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His lack of knowledge makes his friendship with Shmuel feel absurd, not just because of the fact that his father is a high-ranking NAZI OFFICIAL (which also makes it feel ridiculous). He's making false equivalences that, even at 9-years old, he'd know are false equivalences. "Gee, I wish I could wear an armband! No one ever gave me one!" As if he'd have no clue what the Star of David is? Or the Nazi …
Here are my main issues with this book:
-
The protagonist is 9-years old at the start; he's the child of a high-ranking Nazi official. Despite the fact his SISTER, who starts as 12-years old, knows what's happening, he has zero clue. Now, having worked with children, I'm about 100% certain if ONE child knows what's going on, then the OTHER child knows; it also makes no sense how he's so clueless about what his father does.
-
His lack of knowledge makes his friendship with Shmuel feel absurd, not just because of the fact that his father is a high-ranking NAZI OFFICIAL (which also makes it feel ridiculous). He's making false equivalences that, even at 9-years old, he'd know are false equivalences. "Gee, I wish I could wear an armband! No one ever gave me one!" As if he'd have no clue what the Star of David is? Or the Nazi Swastika? Have we forgotten WHO his father is? Because I'm pretty sure he'd have been pushed to be a part of this thing called, I don't know, THE HITLER YOUTH. He would have seen all of this propaganda at some point and had a frame of reference for it.
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Both children are younger than they are. I've never met a 12 or 13-year old girl like Gretel, and I certainly haven't met a 9 or 10-year old boy like Bruno. To be fair, I've never met TODDLERS like these two characters. I'm not sure why authors can't accurately write children, but this is a spectacular fail.
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History. All of it. There is nothing that is so little that is even remotely accurate, even for camps that WEREN'T Auschwitz. I'm not sure what version of the Holocaust he learned, but he learned one that apparently came from a Nazi apologist.
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What is with these authors who keep doing Nazi family/person and Jewish family/person in WWII and Nazi family/person is made out to be a Good Person Deep Down? Or, in this case, also Really Naive About Everything?
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Why is a German-speaking child confusing German words and location names for ENGLISH, especially when HE DOESN'T SPEAK ENGLISH? He even openly says that he DOESN'T KNOW ANOTHER LANGUAGE.