Jennifer A. Nielsen

"With the rise of the Berlin Wall, twelve-year-old Gerta finds her family suddenly divided. She, her mother, and her brother Fritz live on the eastern side, controlled by the Soviets. Her father and middle brother, who had gone west in search of work, cannot return home. Gerta knows it is dangerous to watch the wall, to think forbidden thoughts of freedom, yet she can't help herself. She sees the East German soldiers with their guns trained on their own citizens; she, her family, her neighbors and friends are prisoners in their own city. But one day, while on her way to school, Gerta spots her father on a viewing platform on the western side, pantomiming a peculiar dance. Then, when she receives a mysterious drawing, Gerta puts two and two together and concludes that her father wants Gerta and Fritz to tunnel beneath the wall, out of East Berlin. However, if they are caught, the consequences will be deadly. No one can be trusted. Will Gerta and her family find their way to freedom?"--Back cover.

A Night Divided

When the Berlin Wall went up overnight, Gerta, her mother, and her brother Fritz are trapped on the eastern side where they were living, while her father, and her other brother Dominic are in the West--four years later, now twelve, Gerta sees her father on a viewing platform on the western side and realizes he wants her to risk her life trying to tunnel to freedom.

Sarah Sammis

If I were younger and this were my first Berlin Wall story, I would probably rate it higher. As it isn't, I could see all the pieces falling into place based on the many tropes that have developed in the three decades the wall stood and people told stories about crossing it.

http://pussreboots.com/blog/2018/comm...

Elizabeth McInerney 

I didn’t want to put it down. Incredible grit and determination amidst darkness and hopelessness. I love how they overcame the seemingly impossible together.

Mary Horton

*is trying futilely not to hyperventilate* 

WHAT JUST HAPPENED?! I seriously think I'm going to need a new heart because mine about wore itself to death with all that suspense. 

This book doesn't stop. Not for a second. From the very first page, I was sucked into the bleak, hard world of East Berlin, where even thinking is a crime. Still, even with all that intensity, Jennifer Nielsen somehow managed to shape her characters--all of them--into people who popped off the page. 

All right. I feel the need for a list. *grins*


  Lovely Things:


- The family dynamics. CAN I GET AN AMEN? How many YA books do you see that are focused on families? To say this is a forgotten area would be a gross understatement. I absolutely adored Gerta and Fritz and their family. Their love, loyalty, and devotion to each other is evident throughout the entire book. They're a real, honest family--not perfect but what family is?

- The writing. As usual, Jennifer blew my socks off with her writing. I'm still doing Camp NaNo sooooo...it was hard not to compare my writing to hers and cringe. XD She has such an engaging, natural writing style that I adore.

- ALL THE THEMES. Freedom. Courage. Sacrifice. Love. It's all in here.

- The setting. Okay, admittedly, this was NOT a good time period for Germany. But all the research that went into creating this heartbreakingly realistic picture of East Berlin was amazing. It makes me want to read more about the Berlin Wall!

- The action. MY GOODNESS. Just...how?? The action never stopped the entire time and now I'm just sitting here panting because wow. I feel like I just ran from the Stasi myself.


  Not So Lovely Things:


- The ending. It seemed pretty rushed, but it didn't detract much at all from my enjoyment of the book.

- Erm...nothing else? The book is squeaky clean--with the violence at a minimum--although it's pretty dark for a lot of younger readers. I didn't personally mind; in fact, I rather thought the darkness was necessary to make the light shine brighter overall.

Even if you don't like historical fiction, GO READ THIS BOOK. It blew my mind. *goes off to recommend it to everyone and their pet lizard*

5 stars!

Nadine 

Good historical fiction on a time not often dealt with in YA literature. Particularly appreciated the quotes at the start of each chapter on freedom.

Laura

I kinda missed the boat on middle grade novels. I mean, sure, I read some middle grade novels back in late elementary school through my middle school years, but I think for the most part I made the jump directly from advanced children's chapter books to YA and even adult books. When I think back to my middle school years I read books like The Outsiders, To Kill a Mockingbird, and The Great Gatsby, but I also read complete trash like the TTYL series (that I can't believe my mom let me read) that was all most decidedly not middle grade. The books that I think came the closest to middle grade include the Araminta Spookie books that I first really got into in 4th or 5th grade I believe, maybe later, the Percy Jackson series (5th grade for that one), and The Girl Who Could Fly. Middle school was also where I became obsessed with Unwind, but that's a story for another day. As a whole though, I don't really remember reading much at all in middle school, and if I did middle grade wasn't something that really appealed to me because of how fantasy heavy it was.

Because of this, when I encounter middle grade out in the wild, I never know really how to grade it. While I'm confident in my abilities to rate YA and adult novels, simply because I've read a ton of those, middle grade of any kind stump me. I constantly wonder if I'm being too lenient on a book or too harsh on one, whether I expect too much or too little. And because I hate rating them, I avoid them and the cycle kind of repeats itself. Also, I don't like fantasy, and a lot of middle grade is fantasy which makes it easier to avoid. I suppose that middle grade is a good metaphor for the middle school years, though, since from what I remember people always used to think too much of me or not enough of me. I guess if you wanted to be deep about it you could say that's why I stay away from middle grade- who wants to relive their middle school years?

Anyway, I picked this book up because it was recommended to me, sounded interesting, and was cheap enough for me to want it. I go through historical phases a lot, and right now I'm super into the 60s and the Cold War. Mostly the early sixties, though. I'm also trying to get back into historical fiction. I mean, it's not that my love for it has ever died or anything, it's that I really haven't been impressed with any of the new releases in this genre and have been having a hard time finding really great old ones. I'm also been getting sick of WWII (though The Last Lament is on my list). I don't know. I think the reasons thrillers have been standing out to me lately is because of all new and exciting things happening in the genre and the lack of sameness and repetition whereas the historical fiction genre lately is plagued by it. Also, I have romance novels, and I don't know why, but there's something about historical fiction that draws romance writers. So A Night Divided, being about the Cold War and East Berlin and NOT WWII drew me in despite being middle grade.

And right away, my usual problems with middle grade started. My first potential criticism was that the author really liked to tell us her research as opposed to show it to us. We got a lot of paragraphs that were basically infodumps, something I probably would have liked more if it all wasn't simplified and repetitive to me. This isn't Life: An Exploded Diagram, telling me straight up facts but in an amusing way. No, it was pretty dry, basic WWII/Cold War stuff. However, even as I wrote this complaint down in my notes, the nagging in my brain started again. "What if this stuff is typical of middle grade historical fiction? What if some twelve year old girl reads this book and decides she wants to know more about the Cold War and soon she wants to become a historian?" And this is where I hesitate. Look, I'm not one to give idea points, unless the idea is really, really cool. I don't give people who write books about "taboo" topics higher scores than those who don't because of their "bravery". That seems dishonest to me. But in this case, I waffled. Because the hard facts aren't really that bad or annoying, and I would love if middle schoolers got interested in history because of books like this. Apparently, I do give idea points to books that I think have some educational or interest value, especially if their target audience is bored middle schoolers with no interests besides shopping and boys and music. So in the end, I decided I didn't hate the factual paragraphs.

Next, I decided I didn't like the main character very much. I didn't hate her or anything, but she was the very typical strong, trouble making preteen girl, the kind of character I picture when I'm asked to picture a female protag from a middle grade/young YA novel. I mean she's harmless enough- she's got the kind of traits that would empower a preteen girl but she's also so vanilla girls can project themselves on her. I mean, when I was a preteen girl, I enjoyed inserting myself as the main character (albeit so I can mentally manipulate the story so that everything in it happens that I want to happen). But I was torn as to how much personality I was to expect from a middle grade novel. I mean, the girls in books I remember reading- Araminta Spookie, Piper McCloud, Annabeth Chase, all those girls had tons of personality (admittedly all of them had "spunky" as a character trait in some form- except maybe Araminta, but she was in a class by herself) and none of them had as bland character traits as Gerta. I think this is one of those cases where I can definitely take off points, based on my limited experience.


Continue reading this review on my blog here: 
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When her family is abruptly divided by the rise of the Berlin Wall, 12-year-old Gerta harbors forbidden thoughts about freedom and reuniting with her loved ones before a coded message from her father inspires a daring plan.

A Night Divided

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