The Berlin Boxing Club

by Robert Sharenow

Overview

Sydney Taylor Award-winning novel Berlin Boxing Club is loosely inspired by the true story of boxer Max Schmeling's experiences following Kristallnacht. Publishers Weekly called it "a masterful historical novel" in a starred review.

Karl Stern has never thought of himself as a Jew; after all, he's never even been in a synagogue. But the bullies at his school in Nazi-era Berlin don't care that Karl's family doesn't practice religion. Demoralized by their attacks against a heritage he doesn't accept as his own, Karl longs to prove his worth.

Then Max Schmeling, champion boxer and German hero, makes a deal with Karl's father to give Karl boxing lessons. A skilled cartoonist, Karl has never had an interest in boxing, but now it seems like the perfect chance to reinvent himself.

But when Nazi violence against Jews escalates, Karl must take on a new role: family protector. And as Max's fame forces him to associate with Nazi elites, Karl begins to wonder where his hero's sympathies truly lie. Can Karl balance his boxing dreams with his obligation to keep his family out of harm's way?

Includes an author's note and sources page detailing the factual inspirations behind the novel.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062076922
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	05/17/2011
Sold by:	HARPERCOLLINS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	432
Sales rank:	354,982
Lexile:	880L (what's this?)
File size:	8 MB
Age Range:	13 - 17 Years

About the Author

Robert Sharenow is an award-winning writer and television producer. He is the author of the middle-grade novel The Girl in the Torch, as well as the teen novels My Mother the Cheerleader and The Berlin Boxing Club. Since its publication in 2012, The Berlin Boxing Club has been named a Sydney Taylor Book Award winner and an Amelia Walden Award finalist, and has received multiple received multiple starred reviews, as well as a spot on ALA’s Best Books for Young Adults list. The novel has been published in several countries and languages and is perennially taught in high school curriculums in the United States and around the world. Sharenow lives in New York with his wife and two daughters.

What People are Saying About This

Robert Lipsyte

“I held my breath as Karl Stern, fierce and thoughtful, fought his way through the Nazi Wolf Pack and his own insecurities to save his family and become a boxer and an artist.”

Editorial Reviews

As he did in My Mother the Cheerleader (2007), Sharenow delivers a masterful historical novel that examines racism through the eyes of both children and real historical figures. This story follows aspiring cartoonist Karl, a 14-year-old Jewish boy in 1930s Berlin who is on the receiving end of beatings from his Aryan classmates (Karl's cartoons and comics appear throughout). His father's friend, boxing champion Max Schmeling, agrees to train Karl as a boxer so that he can defend himself and his younger sister, Hildy. As the Nazi regime gains power and influence, it becomes clear that Germany will eventually not be safe for Karl and his family. Over the course of a few years, Karl craves the freedom of moving to America, falls in love with his Catholic neighbor, Greta, and meets a cross-dressing homosexual called the Countess, forcing Karl to confront his own prejudices. The assorted plot threads and immersion in the worlds of art and boxing make the novel a bit crowded, but Sharenow's deft touch with his characters and his portrayal of turbulent prewar Berlin more than compensate. Ages 12–up. (May)

Publishers Weekly

★ “Sharenow delivers a masterful historical novel.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)

★ “A story with well-drawn, complex characters, gripping history, and intense emotion.” — School Library Journal (starred review)

★ “A fine one-two punch with the author’s previous powerful work, My Mother the Cheerleader.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“Readers will be drawn [in] by the sports detail and by the close-up narrative of the daily oppression.” — ALA Booklist

“A meaty, readable account of the perils and pitfalls of daily life in Nazi Germany.” — The Horn Book

“This beautifully written coming-of-age story puts a human face on both the victims and the tormentors during the holocaust while revealing on a national level the political importance and implications of the historic match between black boxer Joe Louis and German hero Max Schmeling.” — Voice of Youth Advocates (VOYA)

“I held my breath as Karl Stern, fierce and thoughtful, fought his way through the Nazi Wolf Pack and his own insecurities to save his family and become a boxer and an artist.” — Robert Lipsyte, author of THE CONTENDER and CENTER FIELD

“Set in Berlin just after Kristallnacht, this isn’t just a story about the terrible events in Nazi Germany, it’s also a story about identity, family, and growing up” (in the article “11 Children’s and YA Books to Help Remember the Holocaust’). — Brightly

From the Publisher

A meaty, readable account of the perils and pitfalls of daily life in Nazi Germany.

The Horn Book

I held my breath as Karl Stern, fierce and thoughtful, fought his way through the Nazi Wolf Pack and his own insecurities to save his family and become a boxer and an artist.

Robert Lipsyte

This beautifully written coming-of-age story puts a human face on both the victims and the tormentors during the holocaust while revealing on a national level the political importance and implications of the historic match between black boxer Joe Louis and German hero Max Schmeling.

Voice of Youth Advocates (VOYA)

Readers will be drawn [in] by the sports detail and by the close-up narrative of the daily oppression.

ALA Booklist

Set in Berlin just after Kristallnacht, this isn’t just a story about the terrible events in Nazi Germany, it’s also a story about identity, family, and growing up” (in the article “11 Children’s and YA Books to Help Remember the Holocaust’).

Brightly

Set in Berlin just after Kristallnacht, this isn’t just a story about the terrible events in Nazi Germany, it’s also a story about identity, family, and growing up” (in the article “11 Children’s and YA Books to Help Remember the Holocaust’).

Brightly.com

Praise for MY MOTHER THE CHEERLEADER:“Readers will be held fast by the history told from the inside.

Booklist (starred review)

Gr 7 Up—This powerful and thought-provoking novel set in Berlin from 1934 to 1938 dramatically chronicles the impact of Hitler's rise to power through the eyes of Karl Stern. After suffering a humiliating beating by some pro-Nazi bullies, the 13-year-old happily accepts the chance to be coached by Max Schmeling, the champion boxer he meets at a reception in his father's art gallery. Boxing has never been one of Karl's interests, but it becomes his main focus. Prior to his humiliation at school, drawing cartoons was his passion and they are cleverly interspersed in the story. He and his family are nonobservant Jews, and Karl even expresses anti-Semitic attitudes early in the book. But eventually politics and economics begin to overshadow everything in the boy's life. Much of the art at the Stern Gallery has to be sold secretly since the Nazis have banned it as degenerate. Karl's mother has periods of depression. As the entrenchment of Fascism grows, things become even more confusing. Karl admires Schmeling greatly, but becomes disillusioned by the boxer's association with Hitler and high-ranking Nazis. The gallery is destroyed on Kristallnacht when roving bands of Nazis smash windows of businesses owned by Jews. Karl's father is wounded and Karl and his sister run to a customer who risks a great deal to help them. Ultimately it is Schmeling who saves the two young Sterns and pays for their passage to America. This is an unusual story with well-drawn, complex characters, gripping history, and intense emotion.—Renee Steinberg, formerly at Fieldstone Middle School, Montvale, NJ

School Library Journal

The historically freighted match between Joe Louis and Max Schmeling forms the backdrop for this compelling coming-of-age novel. Fourteen-year-old Karl Stern has never considered himself Jewish. His father is an atheist, his mother an agnostic. He grew up in a secular household, has no religious background and even has a religiously neutral name. But in 1934 Berlin, with the rise of the Nazis and the newly entitled bullies at school, Karl is Jewish. He gets beaten up and, eventually, expelled from school. Enter Max Schmeling, heavyweight champion of the world, who offers Karl boxing lessons in exchange for a portrait from Mr. Stern's art gallery. Karl's journey to manhood, from 1934 to 1938, is a rough one for a Jewish boy in Nazi Germany, but Sharenow weaves a colorful tale from the cultural context of the mid-1930s: the Holocaust, Kristallnacht, degenerate art, Joe Louis, Jesse Owens, Picasso and Matisse. Besides being an up-and-coming boxer, Karl is a cartoonist, and his cartoons and drawings add visual depth to the novel, effectively delineating Karl's growing sense of himself and his purpose, inspired by his beloved Action Comics hero, Superman. A brief author's note continues the story beyond 1938, relating the postwar friendship between Schmeling and Joe Louis. A fine one-two punch with the author's previous powerful work, My Mother the Cheerleader (2007). (sources) (Historical fiction. 12 & up)

Kirkus Reviews