23. Hitler Youth: Growing up in Hitler's Shadow by Susan Campbell Bartoletti (Scholastic, 2005)

BOOK: NONFICTION (ages 10-16)

Brief Description: Hitler Youth chronicles the lives of twelve German young people and their participation in or resistance to Hitler's controversial use of children to further his ideology. The accounts are disturbing yet hopeful as readers learn of featured childrens' feelings about their involvement in the Hitler Youth following WWII . What many youth believed was a fun group to belong to eventually learned the truth about the Fuhrer. Firsthand accounts make this book incredibly compelling; photographs complete the horrific visuals of Nazi Germany and the man who changed Germany forever.

Awards: Carolyn W. Field Award, 2006; John Newbery Medal, 2006; Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction for Children, 2006; Parent's Choice Award, 2005; Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Medal, 2006

Personal Opinion: I have resisted reading this book for some time as my own spouse is German. In fact, a much loved step-mother was a "Hitler Youth" and she cherishes the time she spent in the group having felt a strong sense of belonging. Like many of the youth featured in the book, she was in denial over the true actions being reported about Adolf Hitler. I found the book to be incredibly difficult to read as the content was often beyond human comprehension in the horrors it portrayed, and yet, I found myself racing to the end to see how these people could have come to terms with the part they played, probably unknowingly, in one of the world's most grisly and shocking stories. In short, I truly couldn't put the book down even as I was repelled by its contents. I'm quite interested to read the many books written by the people portrayed here; nearly all whom survived have told their own stories. A truly outstanding book.

Programming/Curriculum: Tweens will be engrossed in this book about kids near to their own age; it should be essential reading material for the study of WWII and the holocaust, and would make an excellent book club discussion book as well, but graphic portrayals may be difficult for some readers, so the book should be focused on the upper age group of tweens.