Katrina Nannestad

Representation: N/A
Trigger warnings: War themes, World War II, military and gun violence, displacement, death of a person mentioned, disappearance of parents
Score: Seven points out of ten.
This review can also be found on The StoryGraph.

Well. I wanted to read this for a while after I read Rabbit, Soldier, Angel, Thief, made by the same author; this novel was next on my list, and not long after, I finally read it. When I finished it, I enjoyed this from start to finish, which I can't say applies to other books I've read, but I couldn't shake the feeling that Rabbit, Soldier, Angel, Thief was better. It starts with the main character, Liesl, whose name I don't know, alongside her family, who hopes Germany will win the war. A few pages later, the Russian Army came and forced Liesl to flee to who knows where. Throughout most of the book, Liesl and her family are alone in the forest, mandated to survive by finding food, water and other necessities, which disheartened me seeing them in this state. Towards the last third of the story, Liesl realised Germany lost the war and her parents; all she has left is her brother, Otto, and her sister, Mia. Eventually, they find solace in a Lithuanian town with their culture being erased in the process, but out of nowhere, the author pulled off a satisfying ending, which I liked.… (mere)

Independent Reading Level: Grades 5-9
Awards: Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature (Winner – Children's Literature – 2022), ARA Historical Novel Prize (Winner – Children/Young Adult – 2021), CBCA Book of the Year (Shortlist – Younger Readers – 2021), KOALA Awards (Winner – Fiction for Years 7-9 – 2022), KROC Awards (2022), Maine Student Book Award (Reading List – 2024), Queensland Literary Awards (Finalist – 2021), Sequoyah Book Award (Nominee – Children's – 2024), USBBY Outstanding International Book (Grades 6-8 – 2023)… (mere)

Trigger warnings: Military violence and war themes, death of a sister, death of a child, explosions, blood depiction

8/10, after reading a book in the same genre as this called Harmony which kind of let me down a bit mainly because it got boring quickly I was hoping that I would enjoy this as well and I'm so glad I read this, it was just a massive step up and just a brilliant read in general so where do I begin? Did I mention this won a Children's Book Council of Australia Award in 2022? It deserves it. It starts with the main character Sasha and the starting pages of the book were quite harrowing when his home was invaded and the soldiers took his sister I think and now he is all alone with his village gone. Not to mention that the title is absolute genius since each word is a hint to what happens during the story which I liked. Not long after he was found by a group of soldiers and I get to see those characters for the majority of the novel except for the ending which I'll get to later. Sasha bonds with the soldiers and I enjoyed all their character dynamics like when one soldier told Sasha about honour which were all really heartwarming but there's also a touch of sadness woven in as well as Sasha discusses the horrors of war and even if they won it still wouldn't feel great. The pacing is just great as some of the scenes were really action-packed while sometimes it can slow down to allow characters to really grow on me, in the end, it was rather bittersweet as a mine explodes at the end of Sasha's journey from Russia to Berlin and some soldiers were killed off; despite this Sasha is an entirely different person now, few books pull off character development like this. This is one of them, if you like war stories pick this.… (mere)