The Nazi Hunters: How a Team of Spies an Survivors Captured the World's Most Notorious Nazi by Neal Bascomb

The Nazi Hunters: How a Team of Spies and Survivors Captured the World's Most Notorious Nazi by Neal Bascomb
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The pursuit and capture of Adolf Eichmann after 15 years as part of the Nazi plan to exterminate the Jews was a profound and thrilling read. The secret plan was thoroughly planned by Jews who personally survived the Holocaust and lost loved ones in the concentration camps and the government officials of Israel. A highly recommended read for young adults and adults as a reminder of the atrocities by Hitler and the Germans against the Jews. Six million were exterminated and many were shot, beaten, starved and worked to death in addition to the furnaces of the concentration camps.

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Midwinterblood by Marcus Sedgwick

Midwinterblood by Marcus Sedgwick
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I read this stunner of a book for the 2014 Hub Challenge and I wanted to know more about this Island of Blessed as Eric Seven visits to write a story about the island's secrets and beauty and seeming simplicity. As Eric meets the friendly island people, he falls in love with Merle who has always lived on Blessed. As days pass, Eric sleeps deeply, rides a bike, drinks tea, swims and tries to remember what he is supposed to be doing. Sedgwick uses short stories to flash back and forward as the story of Blessed is revealed. I especially enjoyed the storytelling that weaves Eric and Merle's love through the ages as they search for each other. Their names change during the time of the Vikings; and other characters after they die become wolves and vampires and always there is a dragon flower on the island with properties that can heal or hurt. The mystery and beauty of Sedgwick's writing kept me turning the pages.

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Getting the Girl by Markus Zusak

Getting the Girl by Markus Zusak
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

In re-reading this book for the 2014 Hub Challenge, I wanted Cameron to succeed, I wanted him to get the girl, and Zusak does a great job of showing Cameron's insecurities, his depth of character, and how getting the girl changes his relationship with Ruben. Even though he doesn't have her for long, and Ruben beats him up, it is his sister who helps Cameron find himself through poems and observations. Cameron is a strong protagonist who finds his place in his family and in the world with his questions and pining about relationships with girls. Cameron gets my vote any day as the Wolfe brother who matters.

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Fighting Ruben Wolf by Markus Zusak

Fighting Ruben Wolfe by Markus Zusak
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

As a new high school librarian in 2003, this was one of my favorite and first books to read. This book started me as a Markus Zusak fan. In re-reading it again for the 2014 Hub Challenge, this book of two Australian brothers who fight to make money to help out their father with his finances is still a winner of family dysfunction, sibling rivalry, and the tough life of the Wolfe brothers. Ruben is a natural at fighting, wins all the girls, and has no fear. Cameron, the younger brother, is sensitive, not really great at fighting and has many fears. My students loved this book; the readers, the reluctant readers, and the urban fiction readers (and reading teachers) all liked this book.

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I Am the Messenger by Markus Zusack

I Am the Messenger by Markus Zusak
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I re-read this book as part of the 2014 Hub Challenge and it is still one of my favorite books. Ed thinks of himself as a loser; he drives a cab and loves his best friend, Audrey (who doesn't love him back), and I will never forget his coffee drinking dog, The Doorman. When Ed foils a bank robbery, he begins to receive playing cards in the mail, directing him to different situations and we see how well (or not) he handles the different missions. It is the slow, sure way that Ed becomes a different person by helping others that impacted me the most. I loved reading hangdog Ed and seeing him become a better person with each person he helped. A very satisfying read:)

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The Scar Boys by Len Vlahos

The Scar Boys by Len Vlahos
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I got my ARC at ALA Midwinter in Philadelphia and this book is so good on so many levels. It is about Harbinger Jones, whose voice is real, authentic, knowing, and damaged. He is scarred (both mentally and physically ---he was hit by lightning, while tied to a tree by a bully)as a child and this disfigurement follows him (in waves) throughout the book, and will his entire life. It is a story of friendship, a love of music, a band tour, and ultimately how Harry succeeds as a person and friend. I loved Vlahos' words, characters and the depth of his feeling for Harry, his parents, Johnny, Richie and Cheyenne; highly recommended. This is a great guy book, but girls will love it too and also adults.

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Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein

Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I read this book for two reasons, with the first being it is the Goodreads February Discussion for Books Hot Off the Presses
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
and the second is my participation in the 2014 HUB Reading Challenge
http://www.yalsa.ala.org/thehub/2014/.... This book is on the list of the 2014 Top Ten Best Fiction for Young Adults. Rose Justice is a transport pilot, who grew up outside Hershey, PA. It is during the war that Rose's plane is intercepted, she is captured by the Germans and taken to the Ravensbrück concentration camp, where she is a prisoner for six months. Rose and the other captives (who are there much longer)endure beatings, torture, experimentation, and deprivation. It is during her imprisonment and after, as she recuperates in Paris that the full story emerges. What was so wonderful about this story was the "family" Rose formed while in Ravensbrück and it was these bonds that enabled them to endure and in many cases, survive. Wein weaves the importance of family throughout the whole book; with Rose's Hershey family, her pilot friends who are her family before her capture and the Rabbits, Lisette, Irina, Roza, Karolina and others who are her camp family. Rose uses her poetry and storytelling with her concentration camp friends to as a way to remember life before and survive each day whatever way they could. It is during her imprisonment (and after) with the Hamburg Ravensbrück Trials and the Doctors' Trial against Nazi war criminals that Rose emerges as a much stronger person; a writer and medical student, and is able to bear witness in her own way to the atrocities of the camp and let the world know the names of all 75 of the Rabbits who were maimed (and many killed) by Nazis due to their experimentation. Readers will love the women (pilots, survivors, and those who do not survive) in this book; their bravery, fury, compassion, defiance, craziness, and beauty. Highly recommended!

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