Summer of My German Soldier (Puffin Modern Classics) (Paperback)

~ (Author) "WHEN I SAW the crowd gathering at the train station, I worried what President Roosevelt would think..." (more)
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Editorial Reviews

Review

Courageous and compelling! -- Publishers Weekly

Review

"Courageous and compelling!"
-- Publishers Weekly (Publisher's Weekly ) --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9-12
  
• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Puffin (April 20, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0142406511
• ISBN-13: 978-0142406519
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (199 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #70,999 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

75 of 81 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Summer of My German Soldier", April 23, 2001

By	"ssjoshi101" (IL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Summer of My German Soldier (Young Puffin) (Mass Market Paperback)

This book is very sad, but still excellent. The main character is twelve-year-old Patty Bergen, a Jewish girl growing up during World War II. She lives in a small Arkansas town, where her parents own a department store. The federal government has chosen her town as the location for a camp for Nazi prisoners of war. Although most Jewish Americans despise the Germans for what they have done to Jews in Europe, Patty regards the prisoners of war with more curiosity than hatred.

The Nazi soldiers are used to pick cotton in the fields of the rural South, and they are brought to Patty's father's store to pick out hats to protect their faces from the hot sun. Only one of them can speak English, and so he interprets for the entire group. The interpreter's name is Frederick Anton Reiker, known to his friends as Anton. Patty is present when the soldiers arrive at the store, and she waits on Anton, who wants to buy a pencil sharpener. They become friends in this short length of time.

Patty has many problems with her family. Her parents never show her any love or kindness. Her mother, who is very beautiful, is always finding faults with Patty's appearance, and her father outright hates her. She has to endure beatings and whippings from him several times. Patty has very few friends, and her closest friend is Ruth, an African-American woman hired to be the housekeeper and cook for the Bergens. Patty also loves her sister Sharon, even though Sharon receives a lot of love and attention from the girls' parents, and of course there is Anton. She isn't good friends with the other girls in their town because of the ever-present barrier of religion.

Anton manages to escape from the prisoners' camp and makes his way to Patty's home. She shelters him in a forgotten suite of rooms above the family's detached garage, and brings him food and clothing daily. During this time period, their friendship deepens. Anton witnesses one of the beatings that Patty's father was giving her, and tried to rush to her aid. When Patty is talking to him after this episode, she realizes that she has never loved her parents, particularly her father, and that they are cruel to her. However, her time with Anton can't last. He feels that he is threatening Patty's safety by staying with her, and so he leaves.

Over the next few months, Patty has to deal with many crushing losses, especially one concerning Anton. She draws strength from a ring he gave her before parting, which was his most treasured possession. She also learns to accept that her parents cannot and will never love her, but she realizes that it isn't because of her faults that her parents hate her--it is because of their pettiness and narrow-mindedness.

I recommend this book to anyone. It's really sad and will probably make you cry at some points, but the story is absorbing and very believable.

20 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Couldn't put it down, December 7, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Summer Of My German Soldier (Paperback)

In my opinion the is a heart-wrenching, though provoking book for mature readers. Usally I don't read dramas but when i picked it up I couldn't put it down. The main character Patty Bergan really becomes a part of you. This book focuses on love and hate set in World War II in a swall town in Arkansas. Patty has just turned twelve. She is a young Jewish girl who is nelected by her parents and alone until she meet an excaped, German prisoner of war from a compound near by named Anton. Even though this is set during wartime America this book remindes us who read that there is good amoung evil, and that even in the darkness, there is light. For a lot of people this book can be somewhat painful because of the victimization of children-- wheater the brutality is physical or emotional. Anton excapes from the local prison and Patty, knowing the rick, helps him to hide. She lived with perpetual fear of maternal rejection and redicule-of her vicious, child-beating fatherand of coming in a poor second place to her pretty, petted sister. She also knew the rick of her norrow-minded Arkansas town opposing her humanitarian treatment of an excaped German prisoner of war. Patty learns to look at Anton, not as Nazi, but as a frightened young man. Patty knows that if anyone were to find out her life would be over, but cannot overcome the power of love. With Anton, Patty finds the love she has longed for and the appreciation her parents never gave her. Such a friendship can be dangerous. In Green's scenario of paranoia and government promoted prejudice, there is no room for compassion or the budding of a romance. Even pure friendship is tained by vicious minds. The ending was sudden and shattering. I would recomend this book to anyone.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Summer of My German Soldier, December 6, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Summer of My German Soldier (Young Puffin) (Mass Market Paperback)

I just read "Summer of My German Soldier", by Bette Greene. I thought that this was a really terrific book. It is the story of Patty Bergen, a Jewish girl in the South during WWII, who makes friends with a Nazi soldier. She makes friends with him because she her parents are mean to her and she wants companionship and love. This was a wonderful book with characters so real that I could feel what they were feeling and think what they were thinking. After reading "Summer of My German Soldier", I had tons of questions about the book and about the author. I wanted to know if any of it was based on a true story. I also wondered if Bette Greene's life influenced her to write the book in any way. So I did some research on the internet, and I found out that there's a webpage about the author and the book! It's at bettegreene.com and it has tons of useful and interesting information. Plus, you can email Bette Greene about her books! I recommend that you read this book and look at the website to get answers to the questions I know you'll have.