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THE WAR OUTSIDE

Monica Hesse

Fall 2018 Indie Kids Next List
Publishers Weekl< Best YA Book of 2018
2018 BCCB Blue Ribbon
2019 YALSA Best Fiction For Young Adults

It's 1944, and World War II is raging across Europe and the Pacific. The war seemed far away from Margot in Iowa and Haruko in Colorado - until they were uprooted to dusty Texas, all because of the places their parents once called home: Germany and Japan.

Haruko and Margot meet at the high school in Crystal City, a "family internment camp" for those accused of colluding with the enemy. The teens discover that they are polar opposites in so many ways, except for one that seems to override all the others: The camp is changing them, day by day and piece by piece. Haruko finds herself consumed by fear for her soldier brother and distrust of her father, who she knows is keeping something from her. And Margot is doing everything she can to keep her family whole as her mother's health deteriorates and her rational, patriotic father becomes a man who distrusts America and fraternizes with Nazis. With everything around them falling apart, Margot and Haruko find solace in their growing, secret friendship. But in a prison the government has deemed full of spies, can they trust anyone - even each other?

ZEIT DER LueGEN
Deutsch von Cornelia Stoll
[TB cbt 02/2022]
Available products
Book

Published 2018-09-01 by Little, Brown (US)

Comments

Hesse has written an extraordinary novel of injustice and xenophobia based on real history. . . . Hesse does a superb job of recreating life as it was lived by innocent people forced to exist surrounded by barbed wire fences and guards. In Haruko and Margot she has written developed, multidimensional characters who live dramatically on the page. Readers will empathize with them and their plight, wishing the best for them but also understanding, thanks to the author's unsparing honesty and integrity, that not all endings are happy ones. -- Booklist, starred review

Hesse does a good job of pointing out all of the hardships, both mental and physical, that these families faced. . . . Teens and adults interested in WWII books, especially situations that haven't been written about extensively, will want to experience this story. -- School Library Connection, starred review

YALSA's Best Fiction for Young Adults List 2019 Read more...

Portuguese: Topseller

[...] Another superb historical fiction novel for YA collections. Hesse deftly balances actual events from Crystal City with a resonating fictional story of forbidden friendship and love. . . . A satisfying and bittersweet novel, perfect for those who enjoyed Markus Zusak's The Book Thief or Sherri L. Smith's Flygirl. -- School Library Journal, starred review

[...] Hesse draws Margot and Haruko realistically and sympathetically, bolstered by research into WWII internment camps, in a moving book that successfully describes an unjust aspect of U.S. history. -- Publishers Weekly, starred review

Italy: Piemme

Slovakia: Albatros

Interview with Monica Hesse in Publishers Weekly about her new YA novel THE WAR OUTSIDE. Read more...