Gratz, A. (2016). Projekt 1065: A novel of World War II. New York: Scholastic Press. Michael O'Shaunessey and his family are Irish spies for the British Secret Service living in Nazi Germany during World War II. They pretend to be part of the Nazi party in order to gather information that will help the Allies win the war. While searching for a fallen airman with his Hitler Youth Group, who wants to take him prisoner, Michael finds and rescues him. Through Simon, Michael learns of Projekt 1065. During his quest to collect the details from Fritz, a fellow Hitler Youth, Michael conquers his fear of heights to join the brutal SRD so he can try to halt an assassination plot of an important scientist. The obstacles Michael encounters along-the-way keep the reader on the edge of their seat! Gratz scores again with this historical fiction novel told from the perspective of a thirteen-year-old boy who is forced into the adult world by the volatile times in which he lives. This book prompts pondering about what is important and whether or not you would make the same decisions as Michael if you were placed in parallel circumstances. Reading Level: 5.0 Interest Level: 5-8 🕮🕮🕮🕮🕮🕮🕮🕮🕮🕮🕮🕮🕮🕮🕮🕮🕮🕮🕮🕮🕮🕮🕮🕮🕮🕮🕮🕮🕮🕮🕮🕮🕮🕮🕮🕮🕮 Book trailer:
Gratz, A. (2017). Refugee. New York: Scholastic Press. Alan Gratz expertly knits together the stories of three refugee children from different time periods in history. Josef lives in 1938 Berlin, Isabel in 1994 Cuba, and Mahmoud in 2015 Syria. The families of all three embark on dangerous journeys to escape their circumstances in a quest to protect the ones they love and to better their situation. Each chapter is told from the perspective of Josef, Isabel, or Mahmoud. The chapters alternate between their stories. I started out reading one chapter per day, so the layout was a bit confusing and the details of the individual stories were hard to remember by the time I cycled back through. If you are going to read the book in this manner, I recommend jotting down some brief notes to help you keep the characters straight. However, once I sat down for multiple hours and read through numerous chapters, it was easy to retain the details. Refugee is a historical fiction novel and Gratz does a fantastic job including details of rea-life events in the stories. Of Gratz's novels, this is currently my favorite. All three stories are gripping and will pull you in. As a bonus, Gratz brings the tales together at the end in an unexpected way. This book helped me to better understand the plight of the refugee and to question my beliefs regarding related national policies. I'm sure it will pull at your heart strings as well! Reading Level: 6.1 Interest Level: 5-8 🕮🕮🕮🕮🕮🕮🕮🕮🕮🕮🕮🕮🕮🕮🕮🕮🕮🕮🕮🕮🕮🕮🕮🕮🕮🕮🕮🕮🕮🕮🕮🕮🕮🕮🕮🕮🕮 Book trailer:
