Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Greene

While the battles of World War II are taking place overseas, the war is about to come to the small town of Jenkinsville, Arkansas. German POWs are being transferred to a nearby facility and the entire town seems to be a bit on edge. Watching the tension is twelve-year-old Patty Bergen. Patty is struggling with a lot of things: she's terrified of her father's abusive temper, her mother is always insulting her, and she's one of the only Jewish people in her small town. When she meets Anton, one of the German soldiers, she's amazed by his intelligence and his kindness. Then Anton escapes from the prison facility, and Patty's world is about to change forever.

(Some spoilers below)

I first heard of this story when I fell in love with the TV Movies - Daring to Love forum thread at Television Without Pity. So many people seemed to have such strong memories of both the book and the TV movie. This book wasn't really what I thought it was going to be - I pictured it being more of a romance, but due to the striking age difference between Anton and Patty (including her being only twelve at the time), I would have a hard time even thinking of it being based on romantic love. I was also surprised by the examination of race and the casual, institutionalized racism, although if I had really thought about the setting and the time period I shouldn't have been surprised (but probably still shocked at its extent). The edition that I read, the Open Road Media eBook edition, includes an "Author's Affidavit" at the front of the book where Bette Greene confesses that Patty Bergen is based on her and the book is based on her life. Reading the book took on a bit of a different light after that, making it even more difficult to read about "Patty's" mother and father and how they treated her. 

Summer of My German Soldier, the TV movie starring Kristy McNichol, aired in 1978. Someone has put the movie in its entirety up on Youtube, but I have no idea how long it will last until someone pulls it down.

Also check out Jezebel's look at Summer of My German Soldier.

I read a review copy of the eBook from NetGalley courtesy of Open Road Media.

Read it with:
Morning is a Long Time Coming by Bette Greene
The Drowning of Stephen Jones by Bette Greene
Starring Sally J. Friedman as Herself by Judy Blume

Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret by Judy Blume

I feel that it's really important to mention that the copy I was reading was an updated copy - that is, Margaret's pads stuck to her underwear with adhesive, and she did not have to use a belt. I remember that the copy I read years ago was the 'classic' version, which didn't leave me as confused as I might have been, all things considered.

Also, I had misremembered a lot of things about this book. I had thought that Laura, the girl with the large breasts, was also the one with the sunburn. And that Margaret's grandparents overlap at her house. Neither of those things really matter, but it did made me think about how many books I'm carrying around with my head that aren't really true.

Anyway, the story is sort of complicated to describe. Margaret, a 12 year old girl with no fixed religion, moves to a small town in New Jersey where everyone is either Christian or Jewish. Margaret quickly makes friends with a group of girls (they call themselves the Pre-Teen Sensations, which, unless this was another rewrite, has held up remarkably well). The girls giggle and wonder over bras, boys, and periods, while Margaret carries on a personal quest to find religion. All the time she continues talking to God, and I really like the idea that you can have a relationship with God independant of any organized religion.

I never talked about my period with my friends, and bras were a giant source of embarrassment, and not pride, but I still have a fondness for this book. I didn't read Forever, another Judy Blume book, until I was much older, so this one is the one that hit me in my formative years. I'm glad that it's still out there for kids to look through, the kind of book that they might feel embarrassed about reading but still pour through anyway. I think that Margaret would have read this book, which in a twisty way is one of the best indicators of telling whether or not a story works.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

In the ten years or so since this book was first published (by MTV books, my edition was proud to tell me), this book has become a sort of Gen-next Catcher in the Rye. I think this was exactly the intention of the author, who name-checks not only that novel but a dozen other works of literature as it tries to claw its way into the coming of age niche. I'm not really complaining, though - it's hard to bag on a novel that has a character who actually reads.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower also has a Degrassi-esque quality in that one big Issue follows the other, including smoking, drugs, homosexuality, sex, teen pregnancy, abortion, abusive relationships, and others. Charlie, the narrator, maintains a kind of innocence throughout everything, even appearling to be be shocked - Shocked!- by the idea of masturbation, which he discovers at age 15. Charlie tells the story through a series of letters to an unidentified off-screen character, and it took me a good while to get into the flow of the story. I picked it up and put it down a few times before finally deciding to plow through, and I was glad that I did. The story isn't going to change my life, but it's the sort of one that might change someone's. The Perks of Being a Wallflower is number 10 on the ALA's list of the 10 most banned and challenged books of 2007-2008, which is how I came across the book and probably what motivated me to commit to it. I don't know how likely I'll be to look into what else Chbosky has read, but I'm happy that I've read this one.