Marvelous Middle Grade Monday
War Games (Scholastic Press, 2025) by Alan Gratz is more fictional than his usual historicals, but it is good nevertheless.
Thirteen-year-old gymnast Evie is in Berlin for the 1936 Olympic games and is determined to bring home a gold medal to help her displaced “Okie” family. But a mysterious note to help her “take home the gold” and tell no one, leads her on an adventure where she experiences what Hitler doesn’t want the Olympians to see.
Make sure you read the author’s note at the end.
Check out the bestselling author here and discover his other novels here. Alan also writes graphic novels and short fiction.
My previous recommendations of books by Alan include: Ban this Book and Allies.
In some ways there are so many books written about Nazi Germany and the holocaust that one might think, how can there be another? But Kathryn Lasky has done it well with Ashes (Viking, 2010). The book gives a view into what was happening before much of the world was aware of the looming danger.