80 pages • 2 hours read
Alan GratzA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Content warning: This novel discusses the Holocaust, war, suicide, and violent war crimes.
“Mahmoud Bishara was invisible, and that’s exactly how he wanted it. Being invisible was how he survived.”
The factions in Mahmoud’s native Syria make him come to this conclusion. He only manages to survive by staying off everyone’s radar. This establishes his internal conflict; much later in the story, he learns that visibility has its benefits, too.
“Wearing that uniform turned boys into monsters. Josef had seen it happen.”
Josef is talking about the Hitler Youth movement. Gratz uses childhood vocabulary of “boys” and “monsters” to filter these political ideas through a child’s perspective and highlight Josef’s innocence in this context. This statement also draws a comparison with other kinds of uniforms in the text: those of the Brownshirts, Cuban policemen, and Hungarian border guards.
“He hated that man. Hated him because of everything he’d done to the Jews, but mostly because of what Hitler had done to his father.”
The purpose of each of the plotlines is to imbue three political contexts with individuality to provoke a subjective response. This passage exemplifies that purpose since Josef makes his political context personal by talking about his father.
By Alan Gratz
Allies
Alan Gratz
Ban This Book
Alan Gratz
Code of Honor
Alan Gratz
Grenade
Alan Gratz
Ground Zero
Alan Gratz
Heroes
Alan Gratz
Prisoner B-3087
Alan Gratz
Projekt 1065
Alan Gratz
The Brooklyn Nine
Alan Gratz
Two Degrees
Alan Gratz
5th-6th Grade Historical Fiction
View Collection
Audio Study Guides
View Collection
Coming-of-Age Journeys
View Collection
Juvenile Literature
View Collection
Memorial Day Reads
View Collection
Military Reads
View Collection
Music
View Collection
Realistic Fiction (Middle Grade)
View Collection
The Journey
View Collection