Book Review: Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitlers Shadow by Susan Campbell Bartoletti

The first SCBWI National Conference I attended was in the Summer of 2009. During one of the outbreak sessions, there was an interview with three successful non-fiction authors. They took turns answering questions from Lin Oliver about their craft. Susan Campbell Bartoletti was one of those authors.

Bartoletti's book, Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow won both a Newbery Honor and a Robert E. Sibert Honor. I remember wanting to buy it at the conference, but there were so many books from all the conference speakers, I had to limit my choices to what I could afford.

Five years later, having almost completely forgotten about her book, I'm in the library searching for the 2012 Newbery Medal book by Steve Sheinkin, when I found Susan's book.

After reading, The Book Thief, I understood how not all of the country was in love with their Fuhrer, Adolph Hitler, but it was Susan's book that made history come alive, and actually brought the children back to tell their own biographies.

I'm so glad I read it.