I liked the book, but it took me a while to figure out when it was set. Initially, I thought it was about the start of the Holocaust, but the mention of the Stasi made me wonder if it was set in Russia. Eventually, I realized it was about the Berlin Wall and East Germany under Communist rule. I enjoyed the passion of the story told in prose (is that the word?) it felt more realistic, it had feeling. The emotion the MC was feeling being a teen in an era where people were killed over the smallest thing, even kids younger than her made her small world a bit bigger.

 

This is the only book I’ve read that talked about that timeline in my life. My paternal great-grandparents escaped Germany in the early 1930s with nothing but clothes on their backs, and they lost many family members during the war and after, especially those in East Germany. No one in the family talked much about it, but I remember my great-grandmother, when she was dying in the hospital, saying she never thought she would live to see the Berlin Wall fall. She passed away shortly after that. That sentence stayed with me for years, occasionally resurfacing in my thoughts. Reading this story helped me connect with her words in a new way.

 

To be honest, I wasn't sure if I would like this—200 pages of poetry, it seemed like a lot—but I ended up enjoying it more than I expected. However, I doubt my students would choose to read it on their own. Still, it could be a great book for literature circles in English or history classes.