A Banned Book

     For this category, I chose Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Greene.  This book was published in 1973 - I was in high school at the time it was written.  However, it's about Arkansas during World War II.  I'm sure it was banned because of non-PC references to African-Americans, which is too bad because my favorite character in the book is an African-American woman named Ruth.  She is the maid for the family of the main character, twelve-year-old Patty Bergen.  At the beginning of the book, I found myself quite annoyed by Patty.  She was a smart-aleck, a liar (constantly!), and seemed quite immature (of course she is only twelve!).  As the book went along, though, I found myself growing extremely sympathetic to her.  She had terrible parents - her father beat her and her mother neglected her - and a really bad self-image, mostly due to the awful things her parents always said to her.  Most of her lies were trying to get some positive attention from her parents.  They stubbornly didn't give her any.  I just wanted to shake those two people!

     Some German POW's get sent to their town and one of them escapes.  Patty hides him in their garage and brings him food and clothes.  When he leaves, he gives her a gold ring, a family heirloom, because she's special to him.  He was kind to her and she just ate it up.  The ring meant so much to her that she couldn't resist showing it to someone (of course she made up a lie about how and where she got it), and eventually her "treason" in hiding the enemy was discovered. 

     It was interesting that Patty and her family were Jewish.  When the townspeople learned about what Patty did, they were cruel to Patty's family, vandalizing their store and calling them names.  Patty was eventually sent to reform school.  I didn't care for the ending - it seemed very abrupt and rather negative.  I wish the book had ended in the manner of the last part of chapter 18.  A reporter says, "Some people may find love and brotherhood in the story.  The Memphis bureau of United Press sent it over the international wires, which means that tonight people throughout the world will be reading about how a Jewish girl befreinded a German boy."   Patty's grandmother replies, "I pray to God that when they read about Patty they'll feel a little closer to their brothers no matter what faith or nationality."

     All in all, I really enjoyed this book.  It was marked YA or Juvenile in most of the libraries, but I think it has a message for all of us.