Set in East Berlin in 1989, Noah is 11 years old and had lived a normal life in the USA until the day his parents packed his things and told him his name was actually Jonah and they were going to live in Germany for a while. He was forbidden from using his old name and from talking about his other life. Instead, his parents had made him a scrapbook/photo album about his life as Jonah. In Germany, Jonah meets a neighbor girl named Claudia, which pronounced in German sounds like the word cloud with ia at the end. The word for whale - as in Jonah and the whale in German sounds like wallfish in English. The two form a friendship, but are not supposed to even speak to one another. This historical fiction novel is filled with facts about East Germany and the political situation during the time right before the wall came down. The story is interesting and I think that middle grade children will enjoy it.
No comments:
Post a Comment