Day 264. " It's morning. Sold grey light slips over the tall red brick wall. It stretches across the exercise year and reaches through 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."
Eye catching right? The whole entire book keeps your tush at the end of your seat. Wanting to read more. Especially because it's based on a true story during the Holocaust. The Boy Who Dared starts out with a Hitler Youth, learning at a young age that Hitler was his friend. That he wanted to help him and his family. Helmuth was from a semi-broken home. His mom getting divorced from his older half-brothers' father, before Helmuth was even born. Helmuth never knew his father. His mom doesn't ever want to talk about him, and what kind of man he was. Lucky for Helmuth and his family, they lived nest door to his grandparent. His Opa and Oma were very supporting of his mother being single, with three sons.
Helmuth had always admired the Nazi soldiers. When one soldier asked if Helmuth was going to fight for the Fatherland, his answer was a definite yes! Even though Helmuth's Opa and Oma weren't sure about Hitler's philosophy, he was secretly his Mutter's favorite.
One day the whole school was gathered in the auditorium. There it was announced that Adolf Hitler was appointed the new chancellor of the Reich! Little did he know, that was one of the worst things that has ever happened to him... Everything Un-German was ordered to be shut down. This caused contention in Helmuth's house hold. His Mutter couldn't buy his soon to be step-dad's favorite Kuchen. This was the least of Helmuth's worries.
A couple years passed and Helmuth's life han't gotten any easier. One of his older brothers, Gerhard, was shipped off to fight the war against Poland. The new year came and Helmuth celebrated with peers from his church group. They talked about how life used to be, nice and quiet. Now they could only hear police sirens and the sound of war, while sitting on the roof top.
This book is especially interesting because of it's setting. The fact that it was during the Holocaust, makes the book even better! The protagonist obviously makes you want to be on his side, and you feel bad for him. Helmuth's antagonist, his step-dad, makes the whole story twist! The Boy Who Dared is a great book and I especially like how it's based on a true story. I would recommend this book to anyone who loves a good book!
2 comments:
that book seems so sad. i love those books and hate them at the same time.
I've read this book and your review sounds spot on! It really is a sad story and you really feel for Helmuth! I was so sad reading it, but I was also compelled to read it. I don't think I left my seat once while reading it. I'm so excited that someone else liked this book. Great review!
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