From 1187 Jerusalem to 1920s Germany

The current assignment in YA lit is Historical Fiction, Realistic Fiction, and non-Fiction.  I have finished 2 out of 3 and shall share my thoughts here.

Non-Fiction - Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler’s Shadow read by Susan Campbell Bartoletti published in 2005 by Scholastic Nonfiction; Winner of the 2006 Newbery Honor Award.

Why I chose this book -  I have read many Holocaust stories told from the perspective of the victims but I've read little about the Germans themselves and how such a thing could have happened. The Hitler Youth was created in 1922 and was made up of the Hitlerjugend proper, for male youth aged 14 to 18; the younger boys' section, Deutsches Jungvolk (German Youth), for those aged 10 to 14; and the girls' section, the Bund Deutscher Mädel (the League of German Girls). Membership was compulsory after 1936. Bartoletti follows the stories of twelve German youth during Hitler's time and chronicles their stories before, during, and after the war. The author uses diary entries, letters, and interviews plus many photographs to tell the story of German teenagers that were fanatically loyal to Hitler and also youth that chose to stand against his madness.  The information presented in this book is not easy to read but it deals with a subject that is extremely important and thus the title is highly recommended for 7^th grade and up. 

Non-fiction is similar to Historical Fiction and Realistic Fiction in that the authors of all these genres do a tremendous amount of research to ensure that the information presented is as factual as possible.  However, while characters in Historical and Realistic fiction books may be based on real characters and real events, in non-fiction books the people really lived and events really happened.  Thus it is imperative that authors of non-fiction books ensure that they are presenting factual information.  Extensive bibliographies and indexes are commonly found in non-fiction but not as often in historical or realistic fiction books.  Also, many non-fiction books created for young adults have both black and white and color photographs to help readers understand what is happening and to further emphasize the topic of the book.  Some non-fiction can be dry and uninteresting but authors today strive to create entertaining but factual books that will encourage young adults to read them.  The book I chose is very compelling and readable.  I believe Bartoletti does a great job of creating books that young adults would like to read.

And for historical fiction -  

“Pagan’s Crusade” by Catherine Jinks.  Published originally in 1992, I read a Candlewick reprint that was published in paperback in 2004.  I read it because I had it on my list of books to read and I had a copy here at home.

“Pagan’s Crusade” is the first in the Pagan Chronicles by Catherine Jinks. Pagan  Kidrouk is a sixteen-year-old half-Arab orphan who has been living on the streets of Jerusalem in 1187.  Having gotten himself into a bit of a financial scrape, he decides his only choice is to hire himself on as a squire to the Templars.  This way he can earn some money and also have some protection from the bad guys. Pagan’s life has been a string of unfortunate incidents.  This makes Pagan cynical, angry, and untrusting. There are two glimmers of light in Pagan’s life (even though he is unaware of this for the first half of the book).  The first is his assignment to work for Lord Roland de Bram; the second is his ability to read and write. Tension mounts as Saladin and his army close in on Jerusalem and Pagan and his knight have some life or death decisions to make. 

I enjoyed this book for the most part though I grew weary of Pagan’s cynicism and (not so) private pity party.   There is much that is still unknown about Pagan at the end of the story but I am not certain I will read the rest of the series.  I would recommend it to middle school and high school boys who might enjoy the scrapes Crispin finds himself in and his cynical outlook on life plus the somewhat comic way that Jinks presents certain aspects of life in Jerusalem at that time.

Catherine Jinks is Australian.  She studied medieval history at university and she wrote this book based on some of the things she learned while she was there.  Pagan is not a real person but many of the characters in the Pagan series are, including Saladin and the Templars.