Summer of My German Soldier

In the summer of World War II, twelve-year-old Patty Bergen, a Jewish girl in the small town of Jenkinsville, Arkansas, rarely feels wanted at home. When a camp for German prisoners of war opens nearby and a group of prisoners is brought into town, Patty meets Anton, a courteous young soldier who treats her with a kindness she seldom finds anywhere else. Their brief conversations grow into a friendship she has to keep hidden, because in a town swept up in wartime patriotism, helping the enemy could cost her family, her friends and her freedom. Bette Greene's first novel, a National Book Award finalist, is a coming-of-age story about loneliness, prejudice and the risks of following one's own conscience.