The Boy Who Dared by Susan Campbell Bartoletti

Pages: 165

Intended Audience: Tweens and up

Genre: Historical

Notes for Parents: Some mature scenes

The Back Cover

Day 264

It’s morning. Soft gray light slips over the tall redbrick wall. It stretches across the exercise yard and reaches though the high, barred windows. In a cell on the ground floor, the light shifts dark shapes into a small stool, a scrawny table, and a bed made of wooden boards with no mattress or blanket. On that bed, a thin, huddled figure, Helmuth, a boy of seventeen, lies awake. Shivering, Trembling.

It’s a Tuesday.

The executioner works on Tuesday.

What the cover doesn’t tell you:

This is a novel based on the true story of Helmuth Hubener, a German teenager during World War II who listened to enemy news broadcasts on the radio, something strictly forbidden. Helmuth spread the news he heard (which contradicted German broadcasts) using pamphlets that he distributed through town. He was arrested and became one of the youngest opponents of the Third Reich to be found guilty of treason.

What’s good?

This is a well-written, compelling novelization of a true story. With heartbreaking drama we follow a teenager’s courageous attempt to spread the truth about the Nazis to his fellow Germans. The easy language, simple descriptions and gripping narrative make this a fast and effortless read.

Best Part: The pictures and supplementary material at the end of the book made a great story even better.

What isn’t good?

The story might be too juvenile for some, but I only say that for lack of anything else negative to say about this book.

Worst part: None.

Recommendation þþþþþ

I was riveted when I read this little known true story and highly recommend it.

Bartoletti, Susan Campbell. The Boy Who Dared. New York: Scholastic, 2008.