Bavarian Recipes

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

Description

When the train pulls into the station in Jenkensville, Arkansas, Patty Bergen senses something exciting is going to happen. German prisoners of war have arrived to make their new home in the prison camp. To the rest of the town these prisoners are only Nazis, but to Patty, a young Jewish girl with a turbulent home life, one of the young soldiers becomes an unlikely friend. Anton understands her in a way her parents never could and Patty is willing to lose her own family, friends and even freedom for a boy who becomes the most important part of her life.

Reviews

Rating: 1 / 5
Date: 2010-08-22
Summary: "Can Anyone say Pedophile?"

I've read a bunch of reviews on Summer of my German Soldier, and am appalled at how few people seem to realize....HE'S 21, SHE'S 12!! WHY DO PEOPLE NOT SEEM TO REALIZE THAT THAT'S JUST REALLY WEIRD??!!
Now that I've stopped yelling, I'll point out that the story just doesn't make sense. A childish 12 year old who feels like no one loves her, who does things like make up ridicules stories and tell them as fact, does not make a good romantic heroine. There are lots of reasons why this book could be really intriguing, but they are not explored. Patty never thinks how ironic it is that she, a Jewish girl, is helping a German soldier. It never crosses her mind that he might be dangerous to her or her country. It is never even explained why her German soldier wants to escape in the first place. No references to what happens to him in prison or anything like that. If she'd been sixteen or seventeen, and if their romance had lasted more than two days, this could have been a really interesting book. As it was, it didn't make sense, the heroine was an idiot, and worst of all, this, a book that is required reading in some schools, says it's okay for a 12 year old and 21 year old to have a romantic relationship.

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Rating: 3 / 5
Date: 2010-08-19
Summary: "Summer of My German Soldier"

I had heard many good things about this book. While it was an interesting idea for a book, I found that I just couldn't connect with any of the characters or even the storyline for that matter.

Patty is a twelve year old girl who lives with her parents and sister and is cared for by a nice woman named Ruth. A little bit on the wild side, Patty is definitely not her parent's favored child. In fact, it seems like they'd like her to just disappear. She tries to be helpful and kind and make them like her, but she always seems to fail.

When a POW camp is established right outside her town, she gets a chance to meet some of the prisoners when they come to her father's store for hats. One in particular is kind to her and speaks to her as if she matters. His name is Anton and he is more of a scholar than soldier. Patty finds a chance to becomes friends with him when he escapes from the camp and takes to hiding in her garage at home. She brings him food and shares stories with him. Gradually she comes to appreciate him even despite their differences because he is kind to her and actually seems to care about her. However, they both know it can't last and that he needs to move on before he's caught. Its a danger to both him and Patty to be staying there.

The characters in this, with the exception of Ruth, were just terrible. Patty, to me, was a brat and while I still thought her parent's were louses, I couldn't even like her. Her parents, as said before, were terrible people with no redeeming qualities. Anton was only in the book for a little bit and never really gets fleshed out as a character. The only one I liked was Ruth. She was kind with a few flaws and just seemed to be a real person. The rest were just awful with no sense of good in them. It just wasn't very realistic. Another thing I found a bit hard to understand about the characters was the affection Anton felt for Patty even before she helped him. As a twenty something year old man it just seemed odd that he would find this connection with a twelve year old Jewish girl with no other reason than that she sold him some items at the store and was polite to him.

The writing was easy to read since it was a juvenile book. Since its an older book there are racial slurs in it and that could have the potential to offend some people. Most of the book is dialogue so there is not a great amount of description on the setting of the book and the characters were only minimally described. I did like the dialogue in this book; Greene does a wonderful job of expressing the characters feelings about the war and about their family life through their words.

I just couldn't bring myself to like this book. I wanted to but there was nothing to draw me into the story and care about the characters. Its probably a good book to introduce war themes to children but otherwise I'm not sure what its uses are. It doesn't help my opinion that the book seemed unfinished at the end as well. I kept waiting for some explanations on why people felt the way they did about Patty and what would happen to her after she left the school. It felt incomplete.

Fascinating idea for a plot but only carried out fairly well instead of the excellent book it could have been. It wasn't all terrible, as I said before I liked some of the conversations that took place in the book. It just wasn't what I expected the novel to be when I had heard about it from others.

Summer of My German Soldier
Copyright 1973
230 pages

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Rating: 1 / 5
Date: 2009-11-28
Summary: "Interesting Subject Poorly Developed"

Reading the back cover, I had high hopes of this novel. However, what could have been a thoughtful, ironic, heartwarming story quickly became plotless and one-dimensional. Do Patty's parents really possess no good qualities whatsoever? Is Anton really the saint he seems? This novel makes no attempt to answer any of these questions, and that's what makes it so painful to read. Patty, who is clearly intended to be the endearing heroine, comes off as a know-it-all with a total disregard for rules and boundaries. Also, doesn't a seemingly romantic relationship between a 12-year-old and a 19-year-old feel questionable at the very least? Add this to the fact that there is absolutely no conclusion, and we have a recipe for one terrible novel. I could go on for ages, but here's the bottom line: do not waste your time with Summer of My German Soldier.

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Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2009-08-03
Summary: "Intriguing and Heartbreaking"

This classic novel about a young girl's pain and heartbreak continues to reach out to readers of all ages, after 35+ years. Greene's story of impossible love, between a Jewish girl in the American South and a Nazi prisoner-of-war, endures because of its timeless theme.

Patty's touching story crosses all barriers. Although this story was intended for middle-grade readers, it is equally appealing to teens and adults. It is one of my all-time favorite historical novels, and I will never tire of re-reading it due to its powerful testimony to unconditional love.

Sarah Bruce Kelly
Author of THE RED PRIEST'S ANNINA

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Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2009-07-12
Summary: "Summer of My German Soldier"

Great book. My 13 year old son also enjoyed reading it. I would recommend for any age group.