Reading Metrics
Description
Seventeen-year-old Karl Schmidt is confused. His relatives in Germany rave about the country's new leader, Adolph Hitler, and the improvements he's making there. But Karl's Jewish friend, Rebecca, tells a different story.
Quick Summary
If you like stories that make you think about what it was like to grow up in a world where the news you hear doesn't match what you see, this one will pull you in. Karl is a teen in 1930s Germany whose relatives are thrilled about the new leader, while his Jewish friend Rebecca tells him a much darker side of the story, and watching Karl try to figure out who to believe is both heart-wrenching and thought-provoking. The book is short enough for a quick read but packed with the kind of moral questions that middle-grade readers love to discuss, especially when they're curious about how ordinary people dealt with propaganda and prejudice. It's a good pick for kids who enjoy historical fiction like the "Boy Who Dared" or "The War That Saved My Life," and it gives a clear, age-appropriate picture of the time without getting too graphic. Parents will appreciate that it gently touches on the rise of the Nazi regime and the effects of antisemitism, giving kids a safe entry point to those heavy topics. Overall, it's a quick, meaningful story that shows how friendship and truth can stand up against a tide of lies.