The Enemy
Detroit, 1954
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
Winner, Jane Addams Children's Book Award
A young girl navigates family and middle school dramas amid the prejudices and paranoia of the Cold War era in this “excellent example of historical fiction for middle grade readers” (School Library Journal)
World War II is over, but the threat of communism and the Cold War loom over the United States. In Detroit, Michigan, twelve-year-old Marjorie Campbell struggles with the ups and downs of family life, dealing with her veteran father’s unpredictable outbursts, keeping her mother’s stash of banned library books a secret, and getting along with her new older “brother”—the teenager her family took in after his veteran father’s death.
When a new girl from Germany transfers to Marjorie’s class, Marjorie finds herself torn between befriending Inga and pleasing her best friend, Bernadette, by writing in a slam book that spreads rumors about Inga. Marjorie seems to be confronting enemies everywhere—at school, at the library, in her neighborhood, and even in the news. In all this turmoil, Marjorie tries to find her own voice and figure out what is right and who the real enemies actually are.
Includes an author’s note and bibliography.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
As 12-year-old Marjorie Campbell navigates the standard awkwardness and small cruelties of sixth-grade life in 1954, she is increasingly plagued by questions. Should she befriend the new girl in school, who claims to be from Canada but seems undeniably German? Should she participate in the slam book her supposed best friend Bernadette has initiated? What about the books her college-educated, independent-thinking mother smuggled out of the library and stashed under Marjorie's bed? Does wearing a red scarf make her a Commie sympathizer, as Bernadette asserts? And what's worse, anyway, a Nazi or a Commie? Holbrook (Weird? Let's Be Friends) brings home the complexities of the Cold War era in a multicultural Detroit neighborhood where neighborliness and name-calling coexist. With a WWII veteran father with PTSD and an annoying fatherless teenage boy living in her family's basement, Marjorie is a sympathetic character whose struggles to understand fear and prejudice, as embodied in her friends and family, resonate sharply in today's political climate. An author's note explains Holbrook's personal connections to the story and offers further historical detail about the era. Ages 10 14.
