Rose Under Fire ( 346+ Pages)

For those people who read Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein, you will know that she writes for older Young Adults, or at least for those students with excellent comprehension skills. Her newest book, Rose under Fire, like Code Name Verity, is also based on World War II and it is a nail-biting, action packed, novel that deals with the grim facts of the Nazi regime. I strongly recommend that students read the 4 extra pages before the Acknowledgements at the end of the book. This is the part that explains what is true and what is not. Wein has attempted to do what those prisoners screamed while walking to the gas chambers as well as those survivors, "Tell the world!" How important it is for our students to know what happens when a people believe that they are a pure race and others are not even human! This book is a must read for students studying WW II. It is grim. It is a story of friendships and family and gutsy behavior laced with hope and humor.  It is a story of refusal to give up, and what that necessarily entails. It is laces with poetry, and I definitely would add this to the growing list of new novels about WW II for young adults. And, there is not a single Jewish character in the book, yet another reason for reading it.