I loved this author's "The Giver" quartet, and have read a ton of WW2 historical fiction ... so why have I never read this one? I was out of high school when this came out. With a girl front and center, and my boys already being reluctant readers, it wasn't one that I read to see about recommending to them. It ended up in my personal library at some point, I'll admit to being influenced by the Newbery award medallion. Finally, during this #middlegradeMay challenge, I really made a push to read any unread middle grade books on my bookshelf. 4.5 stars, based a bit more on how I think I would have rated it if I'd read it in my younger years, although still 4* from my adult perspective. 

This was a pretty straight-forward story, appropriate for the age group yet still enough there for older audiences. 3rd person/past tense. MC is 10-year old Annemarie. Not a true story, but the author's notes at the end indicate she was inspired by a friend's stories of living through the German occupation.

It's always interesting to get the different effects of the war, as it affected SO many people in different countries. Similar in some ways, but always something unique, something new to learn. Here, much of the focus was on Denmark, and the smuggling out of the jews, a new way to trick the nose of the dogs. 

While I had the physical book, I borrowed the audiobook and Kindle copy from the library. I went primarily with the audio. It was a quick read, short. If this were for school or book club, I'm sure I would have delved a little deeper. I would have loved to have some discussion questions included. I'm sure I could Google and find some. 

17 chapters with descriptive headers ... I love to look back over the Table of Contents and get that little reminder nudge of what was in each chapter. Sadly, the audiobook TOC didn't include the headers, but YEAH, the physical book actually provided a TOC, w/headers! Very rare!  I liked that the Kindle copy included an introduction from the author.