The Wrong Boy by Suzy Zail

Can there ever be too many books about the holocaust? This reader says 'no', not when they are so simply delivered and poignantly written.  Through this bleak chapter in history, Zail shares the stark, heart-stopping story about a 15 year old girl, a survivor who endures the horrors of Birkenau concentration camp in Poland. As we are all aware, there is no happy ending even for the survivors but there is a rich vein of hope which sustains the narrative and reminds us that all people have a responsibility to ensure that this mass slaughter and dehumanisation of people will never again happen in our lifetime or beyond.

Hanna's stubborn nature and natural prowess with playing classical piano form part of her survival testimony. A simple lie about her age in the opening pages ensures that she narrowly misses being sent to the gas chamber. From that point her luck continues as she manages to impress a German commander with her musical ability to 'secure' a place as his 'entertainer', a mere commodity to amuse his guests:

I'd always performed best in front of an audience. It was easier to play warmed by the smiles, buoyed by the audience's expectations, jolted by the extra electricity an audience provides. But not this time, not here. I wasn't on stage. There were no draped curtains, no chandeliers. I was wearing a dead girl's dress and no matter how well I played there'd be no applause. (p.97)

There is nothing pleasant in talking about the holocaust, but talk about it we must. Zail bases her story on what she learnt about it from her father who was 13 when he was captured and taken to Auschwitz. The Wrong Boy  should rightly take its place with the other classics in literature on this historical event including The Hiding Place,   The Diary of Anne Frank and The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas.

'The Debt - Catch the Zolt' - Phillip Gwynne

Quality fiction for teenage boys is no longer a thing of the past. Three cheers for Mr Gwynne who, being a lad himself at one stage of his life, knows exactly what boys want to read. It's all here - seriously.

There's competition, sexy cars, money, power, punch-ups, shootings, intrigue and excitement. This might seem an unfair thing to say, but I don't think the girls will get this book. I persisted so I could rally the lads.

Oh, forgot to mention plane crashes:
     As if to emphasise his point we hit a patch of turbulence and the plane shuddered violently, the chairs we were sitting in moving all over the place. My guts, too, now seemed to have no fixed position.
   As the ground came up to meet us, Otto talked to himself.
   ...'Keep the nose level,'  he kept saying. 'Keep the nose level.'
   I remembered the photo on the net of one of the planes he'd crashed, its nose buried in the earth.
   How he had walked away from that mess unharmed I wasn't sure. (p.265)

The first in a series, The Debt will not disappoint. Cheers Phil :)

Miss ^__^