Monday, July 13, 2015

A Night Divided by Jennifer A. Nielsen - ADVISABLE

Nielsen, Jennifer A. A Night Divided, 336 pages.  Scholastic Press, August 2015.  $17.  Content: G (one undescribed death). 

Friends warned Gerta and her family that the Russians were up to something.; they should escape to the West now.  Her father and a brother head off to find an apartment and job possibilities, but while they are gone, the barbed wire goes up, followed quickly by The Wall and the Death Zone, dividing East and West Berlin fairly definitively.  For four years, the family members have no contact, until Gerta sees her brother and then her father on a high platform across the wall.  Then a  secret message leads Gerta and Fritz to realize that their father wants them to work on a tunnel.  How can two children complete such a task and keep it secret from neighbor snitches, well-meaning friends, and their own mother? 

I hope Nielsen keeps on writing historical fiction.  She has quite the talent for it.  There are a few books on the topic of Berlin in the 1960’s, but this is an excellent addition to any well rounded historical fiction collection. 

MS – ADVISABLE.  Cindy, Library Teacher

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