The Boy Who Dared

by Susan Campbell Bartoletti Narrated by David Ackroyd

Overview

Just as the Nazis are rising to power, Helmuth Hübener, a German schoolboy, is caught up in all the swashbuckling bravado of his time. The handsome stormtrooper uniforms, the shiny jackboots and armbands, the rousing patriotism all serve to draw him into this bright new world full of promise and hope. In the beginning his patriotism is unwavering. But every day the rights of people all over Germany are diminishing. Jews are threatened and their businesses are being destroyed. The truth has been censored, and danger lurks everywhere. Anybody can turn on you. The world has turned upside down: Patriotism means denouncing others, love means hate, and speaking out means treason. How much longer can Helmuth keep silent? Told in flashback, Newbery Honor Book author Susan Campbell Bartoletti magnificently explores the life of a heroic German youth who dared to stand up against the Nazi regime.

Editorial Reviews

Kirkus Reviews

Spun off from interviews with survivors as well as published sources, Bartoletti crafts a novel closely based on the true story of Helmuth Hubener, a German teen who stood up to the Nazis and paid with his life. Written in present-tense flashbacks, the tale traces the development of Helmuth's outlook from childhood delight in playing with toy soldiers within the safe confines of his closely knit Mormon family to ill-concealed fury as Hitler's rise brings mounting violence against Jews, suppression of books and foreign news and a general climate of fear and mistrust. He resorts at last to anonymous pamphleteering, and his eventual capture brings imprisonment, beatings and a trial at which he manages to save two of his friends from death penalties. A long author's note and a suite of photos cap this inspiring tale of conscience and courage. Pair it with Bartoletti's Hitler Youth: Growing up in Hitler's Shadow (2005). (Historical fiction. 11-13)

From the Publisher

Awards and Praise for The Boy Who Dared:A YALSA Best Book for Young AdultsA Booklist Best Book for Young AdultsA Booklist Editors' ChoiceA 2009 Notable Book for a Global SocietyAn NCSS Notable Social Studies Trade Book for Young People* "The teen's perspective makes this a particularly gripping way to personalize the history, and even those unfamiliar with the background... will be enthralled by the story of one boy's heroic resistance in the worst of times... This is an important title for the Holocaust curriculum." — Booklist, starred review"[An] inspiring tale of conscience and courage." — Kirkus Reviews"Bartoletti offers another perspective on the Holocaust, demonstrating that even if the effort proves unsuccessful, the courage and convictions of a minority should be motivation to speak the truth rather than remain silent. It's a message that must be continually emphasized as a lasting legacy of the Holocaust." — School Library Journal"A stirring tale of one young man's resistance to a government he came to regard as evil... The character development, based on research and interviews with those who knew Helmuth, is solid, and the author excels in creating a sense of immediacy in the setting. Her Nazi Germany is a place that is hauntingly familiar, enveloped in a government-fed sense of fear in this welcome addition to a body of literature begun with Anne Frank's diary." — VOYA "Bartoletti accomplishes the seemingly impossible task of building dramatic tension in a story whose outcome we know from page one. Helmuth's questioning voice lives on in the pages of this compelling work." — Cooperative Children's Book Center, recommended

Product Details

BN ID:	2940169118872
Publisher:	Penguin Random House
Publication date:	01/13/2009
Edition description:	Unabridged
Age Range:	10 - 13 Years

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