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teganbeesebooks's review against another edition
4.0
Wow! I wasn't sure what to expect, but that was really good! I've never read a book about the Berlin Wall, but really want to read more now! Read this for Battle of the Books 2018. Full review to come.
bibliobethica's review against another edition
4.0
YA historical fiction. A story worth telling about the Berlin Wall and life in the East versus the West. Intriguing storyline that will keep students turning pages. Gerta, barely a teen, must overcome her fears to help her family.
hsox's review against another edition
5.0
This book is beautifully written and captures your heart as a family is divided because of the Berlin Wall. Their struggle is something from another world and reminds the reader that this was an actual time in history. As a teacher, there are not many good books that illustrate the Cold War and its consequences. A Night Divided allows us to live through characters who experienced some of the worst of communism and struggled to overcome. I love the internal conflict that the characters face because it shows how the government can control someone's thoughts and actions and how someone can be so torn on what the 'right' thing to do is. The ending was everything I wanted it to be and more. I can't wait to share this book with my students!
beths0103's review against another edition
4.0
Gerta and her family are living in East Berlin during the time of the Cold War. One evening her father and brother go over to the West to make preparations for their family to move to a place where they will be free, when overnight, a wall divides the city, keeping its residents caged in like animals. Gerta, her mother, and brother Fritz are now stuck in East Berlin where they must constantly fight and dodge the Stasi, the East German Secret Police, who have put a mark on their family due to their father's involvement in resistance activities while he was a citizen of the GDR.
So the next four years of Gerta's life are spent longing for her father and brother and a life with them in West Berlin. When one day, Gerta spots her father on the other side of the wall sending her what seems to be some sort of message. As she attempts to interpret her father's cryptic dance, a little while later, Gerta receives a mysterious photograph that seems to be telling her that she and her brother need to tunnel under the wall to escape into West Berlin. But after Gerta's brother Fritz faces the death of a friend as the result of a botched escape attempt, the family must consider the real possibility that attempting to dig a tunnel to the West might result in their arrest and possible death. The question is, are they willing to take the risk?
I've written about Berlin many times before. But here I go again.
Berlin is my favorite city in the entire world. When I visited the it for the first time back in 2004, I had never been to a place that had such a youthful energy despite its bleak and storied past. Reminders of that past are on just about every corner you turn, yet the energy of the city still feels vibrant, palpable, and charged with hope. It is the place I realized how little one can actually learn about history inside the walls of a classroom.
When my husband and I visited visited the Checkpoint Charlie Museum during that first visit to Berlin, and despite the fact that we have very short attention spans when it comes to visiting museums, we spent over three hours there just soaking in the stories of all the people who tried to escape into the West and marveling at the lengths people went to in order to live in a free society.
Ever since that first visit to Berlin, I have been waiting for history to catch up to itself and find more children's literature about the Cold War, more specifically, about those who lived behind the Iron Curtain.
In A Night Divided, I have finally found the Berlin Wall novel I've been waiting for.
This is a meticulously crafted book. From character to plot development, Nielsen left no detail amiss. And in some ways that is both a strength and a weakness. Because this book is so perfectly and precisely crafted, it almost feels too perfect, with everything in its place just so, when we all know that life doesn't always work that way. I want to make it very clear that I am not saying this to be persnickety or nit-picky, trying to find problems where there are none, but simply noting that as I was reading, I felt like I was constantly aware of Nielsen's craft moves because they were so precise. But that is honestly the only thing I have to criticize about the book. It is page-turning, suspenseful, will fill you with emotion, and reads like an extended version of those heart-wrenching stories you read at the Checkpoint Charlie Museum. It it is exactly the kind of Cold War middle grade/young adult historical fiction I have been pining for since I first visited Berlin over ten years ago and internalized the words of John F. Kennedy back in 1963 when he stood in the shadow of the Berlin Wall and said, "Ich bin ein Berliner."
Read my entire review on my blog.
So the next four years of Gerta's life are spent longing for her father and brother and a life with them in West Berlin. When one day, Gerta spots her father on the other side of the wall sending her what seems to be some sort of message. As she attempts to interpret her father's cryptic dance, a little while later, Gerta receives a mysterious photograph that seems to be telling her that she and her brother need to tunnel under the wall to escape into West Berlin. But after Gerta's brother Fritz faces the death of a friend as the result of a botched escape attempt, the family must consider the real possibility that attempting to dig a tunnel to the West might result in their arrest and possible death. The question is, are they willing to take the risk?
I've written about Berlin many times before. But here I go again.
Berlin is my favorite city in the entire world. When I visited the it for the first time back in 2004, I had never been to a place that had such a youthful energy despite its bleak and storied past. Reminders of that past are on just about every corner you turn, yet the energy of the city still feels vibrant, palpable, and charged with hope. It is the place I realized how little one can actually learn about history inside the walls of a classroom.
When my husband and I visited visited the Checkpoint Charlie Museum during that first visit to Berlin, and despite the fact that we have very short attention spans when it comes to visiting museums, we spent over three hours there just soaking in the stories of all the people who tried to escape into the West and marveling at the lengths people went to in order to live in a free society.
Ever since that first visit to Berlin, I have been waiting for history to catch up to itself and find more children's literature about the Cold War, more specifically, about those who lived behind the Iron Curtain.
In A Night Divided, I have finally found the Berlin Wall novel I've been waiting for.
This is a meticulously crafted book. From character to plot development, Nielsen left no detail amiss. And in some ways that is both a strength and a weakness. Because this book is so perfectly and precisely crafted, it almost feels too perfect, with everything in its place just so, when we all know that life doesn't always work that way. I want to make it very clear that I am not saying this to be persnickety or nit-picky, trying to find problems where there are none, but simply noting that as I was reading, I felt like I was constantly aware of Nielsen's craft moves because they were so precise. But that is honestly the only thing I have to criticize about the book. It is page-turning, suspenseful, will fill you with emotion, and reads like an extended version of those heart-wrenching stories you read at the Checkpoint Charlie Museum. It it is exactly the kind of Cold War middle grade/young adult historical fiction I have been pining for since I first visited Berlin over ten years ago and internalized the words of John F. Kennedy back in 1963 when he stood in the shadow of the Berlin Wall and said, "Ich bin ein Berliner."
Read my entire review on my blog.
hopeykatt's review against another edition
3.0
It was very moving but the pace was so incredibly slow. I felt like a whole middle chunk of the book could've been removed and it wouldn't have affected the story too much. I'm glad to be done with it.
lisa03's review against another edition
4.0
I wanted to read this book after reading the description, because the Berlin Wall is interesting to me but I don't know as much about it as I should. This is a really great middle grade historical fiction - it reminded me of "Number the Stars," which I really loved when I was younger. I will now be researching other books in this setting. My soon to be 5th grader read over my shoulder a few times, so I will pass this book on to him to read.
storybookstephanie's review against another edition
5.0
Really well done. It kept me on the edge of my seat and I enjoyed it immensely!
carrie123's review against another edition
informative
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
4.0