Title: Between Shades of Gray

Author: Ruta Sepetys

Genre: Historical Fiction

Rating: 

Between Shades of Gray is a sophisticated book about a fifteen-year-old girl from Lithuania named Lina. Her life is perfectly normal until one night, when Soviets come to her house and give her and her family thirty minutes to collect things like clothes. The Soviets take them to the train station and put them on trains to a labor camp in the middle of Siberia. She is separated from her father, as he has been shipped to a prison. The book often revolves around her trying to contact her father and the struggles that she faces while being separated from him, because she was very close to him.

I think this is a very good book for people who like reading about World War II and unknown World War II stories. It goes into depth about the torture, death, and struggles that prisoners like Lina faced at the camp. I think this is one of the best books about World War II mainly because the Genocide of the Baltic People isn’t a very well known story among World War II tragedies. It makes me feel very sorry for the people that had to experience the Genocide of the Baltic People.

Reviewer: rydes406

Age: 14

Title: Salt to the Sea

Author: Ruta Sepetys

Genre: Historical Fiction

Rating: 

Salt To The Sea, by Ruta Sepetys, is compassionate and filled with tragedy. It takes place near the end of World War Two. This book follows the perspective of four main characters, all with secrets to hide: (1) a former worker at Hitler’s personal museum now on the run, (2) a fifteen-year-old immigrant from Poland, trying to hide her nationality, (3) a Lithuanian nurse, trying to get to Germany, and (4) a Nazi, at the bottom of the pecking order, with delusions of grandeur, an inflated ego and a desire to please his betters. The first three of these four all meet in East Prussia through luck, bad luck, and coincidence. They get wind of a ship that would take them out of the war and into safety, The Wilhelm Gustloff. Meanwhile, the Nazi is assigned to help clean and manage the very same ship. These characters are pulled along the plotline by tragedy, love, war, and greed to their destiny.

Salt to the Sea is an engaging book and does a great job of bringing these characters to life. I am amazed at how the author was able to show the point of view of four different characters. It is filled with twists and is an interesting book to read.

Reviewer: FatRat

Age: 13

Title: The War that Saved my Life

Author: Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

Genre: Historical Fiction

Rating: 

The War that Saved my Life is a book that transports you through an adventure of historical fiction. It is about a ten-year-old crippled girl named Ada living in London during World War II. Ada lives with her little brother and her unstable mother, who is ashamed to let her leave their small London flat. Ada is faced with child abuse and the task of protecting her six-year-old brother from her mother. But when all of London is warned about bombs, her brother’s school organizes for all children to leave and go to live with new families out of harm’s way. Ada has to face the challenge of walking on her crippled foot to get to safety, but that is by no means the end of her adventure. Upon arriving in the countryside, Ada and her brother are sent to live with a stern lonely woman named Susan who lives alone in a big house. Can Ada’s hope and kindness help save not only her brother but also Susan?

I loved the way Kimberly Brubaker Bradley writes from Ada’s point of view. It gives the whole story a very real and inspiring feel. I hope that the next readers of this book enjoy as much as I did, looking at the world through Ada’s eyes.

Reviewer: Blairito

Age: 13