A review by nerfherder86
Cloud and Wallfish by Anne Nesbet

5.0

Wonderful historical fiction novel for middle graders, set in East Berlin in 1989, about a young boy whose life is turned upside down and how he copes. One day his parents pick him up at school and tell him they're going to take that German vacation they've been learning German for--right now! And oh, by the way, they're going to the "other" Germany, and, furthermore, they'll all be using different names now. So he's not Noah anymore, he has to use the name Jonah. And they give him a bunch of rules he'll have to obey while in East Germany, the biggest of which are to say nothing important while inside their apartment, because "they're always listening," and to "not stick out" and "observe everything!" Noah/Jonah has to put up with boredom for months while he waits to be put into an East German school, but he makes a friend in a nearby apartment, Claudia. He calls her Cloud, because in German her name is pronounced "Cloud-ia", while she calls him Walfisch, or Whale, for the Jonah and the Whale story. The story is very suspenseful, I thought, because you and Jonah don't know just what his parents are up to, there are a lot of questions, as well as the strange surroundings and the general unease in the country as (unbeknownst to the characters) the Iron Curtain is softening and soon the Berlin Wall will open. I loved this book, but I'm biased: I got to visit East Berlin four years before this story takes place, with my West German dad and my family, and so I knew the setting very well, and loved all the historically accurate details. I loved the German vocabulary, and how it was explained for an American reader, as well as the "Secret Files" in every chapter that explained historical events and German and Communist culture. I loved the tone of the book; sometimes it was very humorous, and informal, but sometimes suspenseful as I said earlier. I was never bored with it because I was always as curious as Noah/Jonah to find out what the heck was going on and what would happen next, especially with Cloud's family. I thought the kids were adorable; Jonah has a stutter and while it may have just been a plot device, since it was a reason for his mother to come to Germany to ostensibly do graduate research, it was still a very interesting character flaw and how it affected his life was interestingly told. Great book!