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Title: Boy Who Dared
ISBN: 0439680131
Author:
Susan Campbell Bartoletti
Publicate Date: 2008-02-01
Publish: 2008-02-01
List Price: $16.99
Average Customer Rating: 5.0
Format: Hardcover
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $6.15
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $6.40
Amazon Merchant Price: $11.55
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1: Standing up to evil
This historical fiction is based on the true life of Helmuth Hubener, who made leaflets against the Nazis during WW2. I enjoyed this book and like how the author included one important fact of Hubener life, his faith. This story shows the courage of one teen who was willing to stand up to something he thought was evil.
At the end of the book is interesting information on Helmuth and his friends. Also photos, some that are chilling.
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2: Amazing Book!
The Boy Who Dared is a historical fiction book. It is by Susan C. Bartoletti, and is very good. It is told in present tense (i.e. George is walking to the well. He stops and finds three gold coins.) and the author does a very good job at telling it in this unusual fashion.
Helmuth H??bner is the average kid in World War II era Germany. He lives with his grandparents, he plays with the other boys, and he goes to a Mormon church. When he is old enough, he joins Jungvolk, a Nazi training club for kids not yet old enough to join Hitler Youth. Membership in these two clubs is mandatory. His mom is unmarried, and soon marries Hugo, a Nazi Lieutenant. Helmuth thinks less of his mother for marrying this man, whom Helmuth hates. In school, everyone is required to only learn about Hitler and the Nazi party. All students are required to say Heil Hitler before classes begin. When Helmuth makes a remark that the teacher finds disrespectful to Germany, he is harshly scolded. Helmuth's brother is sent into service in the military. He is stationed in Warsaw, Poland, which has been taken over by Germany. He comes home for a while, and brings a special gift: a shortwave radio. Shortwave Radios have been banned so the Germans couldn't listen to enemy country's radio. After Helmuth's brother leaves, Helmuth takes out the radio and listens to British Radio. He soon hears of all the cruel and vile things the Nazis have been doing to other countries...
This was a great book presented in a quite unusual fashion. The first person presentation really makes the book what it is. It has a great storyline, and although it is a true story, it is written in fiction. This book is best suited for anyone over the age of eleven, because there is some violence in the book. I liked this book because of its great story, and how it presents the story is the amazing.
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3: A powerful story of courage and morality
"The executioner works on Tuesdays."
The first page sets the mood for this haunting work of historical fiction, which is based on the life of Helmuth Guddat Hubner, a member of the Hitler Youth and the title character of THE BOY WHO DARED. Susan Campbell Bartoletti has taken one episode from her Newbery Honor Book, HITLER YOUTH, and fleshed it out into a thought-provoking novel.
The story begins on day 264 of Helmuth's imprisonment by the Nazis. In a cold prison cell he reflects on his past while waiting to find out if he has a future --- or if he will be put to death for being "an enemy of the state."
In his cell, Helmuth remembers his mother, Mutti, and older half-brothers, Hans and Gerhard. He also looks back with fondness on his special closeness with his grandparents, Oma and Opa, who care for Helmuth and his brothers while Mutti, a single mother, works nights.
Life is not easy for his family or for the German people after losing the Great War (World War I). At school Helmuth learns how the Treaty of Versailles --- the peace agreement that ended the Great War in 1918 --- has forced Germans to make costly reparations, which have led to unemployment, poverty and inflation. Even more, the treaty has caused shame and humiliation to the once proud and cultured German people, who gave the world Brahms, Beethoven and Bach.
Growing up, Helmuth remembers hearing strong opinions of neighbors and family members after Adolf Hitler, leader of the National Socialist Party and newly elected chancellor of the Third Reich, promises to make Germany strong again. Soon after Hitler comes to power, young Helmuth is entranced with the parades of "brown-shirted men wearing red-and-black armbands and tall, black, shiny boots." He vows to fight for the Fatherland, and Hugo Hubner, a Nazi soldier who becomes Helmuth's stepfather, is proud of his decision to join the Hitler Youth.
Helmuth is a bright and outspoken lad who yearns for the truth. He finds comfort in the Church of the Latter Day Saints and his Mormon faith. As Hitler and the Nazis gain a stranglehold throughout Germany, Helmuth witnesses patriotism turn to fanaticism. Neighbors turn against neighbors, books critical of Hitler are burned, and radios linking Germans to the outside world are seized as the Nazi leader's quest for power spreads across Europe.
After seeing a classmate scorned and beaten up for being Jewish, and later watching a Jewish neighbor who served nobly in the Great War get hauled off by Nazi stormtroopers, Helmuth becomes disillusioned and vows to take action. But can one teenage boy stand up against the Nazis? If so, how and at what risk?
THE BOY WHO DARED is a story about having the courage to act upon one's beliefs, no matter one's age or the risks and consequences involved. Bartoletti's use of flashbacks builds the suspense, and her inclusion of numerous photos, along with a Third Reich timeline, complement the experience of reading this memorable novel.
--- Reviewed by Donna Volkenannt
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4: A series of flashbacks brings his world and its conflicts to terrifying life.
Susan Campbell Bartoletti's THE BOY WHO DARED tells of one Helmuth Hubener, a German schoolboy caught up in the bravado of the new Nazis who offer hope to his world. His patriotic spirit is stirred - until he sees the rights of Germans diminishing, the persecution of Jews, and a dangerous world created. A series of flashbacks brings his world and its conflicts to terrifying life.
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5: The Boy Who Dared
Helmuth Hubener is a young Mormon schoolboy when we meet him in 1933 and a mere 16 years upon his execution in 1942 at the hands of the Nazis. His alleged crime was distributing anti-Nazi leaflets with information he got from listening to the BBC, illegal at the time. When he met his early demise, young Helmuth was the leader of a three-person resistance group with no ties to organized partisans. Using flashbacks, the author describes Helmuth's personal evolution as a resistant and the devastating grip Hitler asserted over the German citizenry. We are privy to the lives and thinking of Helmuth's family and friends and, through them, are witness to the growth of the Nazi state and the public reaction to its harsh edicts. This historical novel calls to mind Sky by Hanneke Ippisch and The Traitor by Howard Fast. Helmuth's reasoned decisions are clear and a reflection of his Mormon faith, which extols honesty. This is a young man whose ideals motivated him to see his neighbors' situation with clarity and make a difficult, life-changing choice, rather than be one of the silent and relatively safe majorities. Author Susan Campbell Bartoletti encountered this compelling story while writing the Newbery honor-winning non-fiction book, Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow. Ages 11-14. Reviewed by Naomi Kramer
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