Summer of My German Soldier

I recently began reading The Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Greene. It was one of those "happen-upon" reads where I was just bored one night and couldn't sleep, so I went digging around through all my family's old books. I am SO glad I "happened- upon" it, and can't wait to see all that happens.

It takes place during WWII and Patty Bergan is a young Jewish girl living in Arkansas with her mother, her father and her little sister Sharon. She also spends a lot of her time with Ruth, the Bergan family's colored housekeeper. Just outside of her sleepy little town of Jenkinsville, Arkansas, a truckload of Nazi POWs are sent to a work camp. Among them is her Anton. Anton is different from the other soldiers; he is kind, polite, and speaks impeccable English. He's also the only one smart enough to escape the prisoner work camp, and leave the guards with absolutely no means of tracking him.

Little did he ever suspect that the only person who would ever see him would be none other than little Patty Bergan. Thank goodness for that, or he would never have made it to freedom. She hides Anton in her family's abandoned garage building on their property that over the years has become her own secret hide-away.

As time goes by, Anton begins to fall in love with Patty, and experiences what she felt from very first time she saw him.

It almost seems like sick irony; a Jewess protecting a Nazi soldier from the American forces trying to free her people in Germany... But you'll come to see that Anton is no ordinary "Nazi"; And Patty Bergan is DEFINATLY no ordinary girl, Jew or not.

I can't wait to see how this story ends!

 

Plus, check out this book trailer!