Booklists

CCBC Review:

On her own in 1932 Berlin, Hilde, 18, feels bereft and abandoned after aging out of the orphanage where she’s been living and not hearing a word from her girlfriend, Gretchen, since Gretchen left months before. Hilde finds refuge one night in Cafe Lila, where a waitress named Rosa gets Hilde a job. Hilde feels right at home at Café Lila, a gay nightclub, and she’s dazzled by kind and beautiful Rosa, who invites Hilde to stay with her and her aunt. The rise of the National Socialist Party and Adolf Hitler start out in the background of this story, in which Hilde struggles to overcome her stage fright to perform at Café Lila, and to overcome her fear of rejection and tell Rosa how she feels. But even as Hilde (white) rises to these personal challenges, the escalating tensions around the elections, as well as Nazi attitudes toward Jewish people, like Rosa and her aunt and gay people, become an ever-increasing threat to both young women and the communities of which they are a part. This beautifully realized novel in verse succeeds on every level—as a work of historical fiction vividly bringing the past to life, as a love story, as a story about overcoming one’s personal fears, and as a work illuminating chilling parallels between early-1930s Germany and Western society today. It’s also a story that celebrates community and family—both blood and found. ©2022 Cooperative Children’s Book Center

CCBC Age Recommendation: Age 14 and older
Age Range: Grades 9-12 (Age 14 and older)
Formats: Novel Poetry
Subjects: 20th Century Fear Friendship Germans and German Americans Historical Fiction Jewish People Lesbians LGBTQ+ Persons Love and Romance Music and Musicians Novels in Verse Oppression Politics and Political Systems Voting Rights/Elections World History
Diversity subjects: Christian Jewish LGBTQ Character/Topic

Publishers: HarperCollins, Versify
Publish Year: 2022
Pages: 487
ISBN: 9780358448907
CCBC Location: Fiction, Wilson

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