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Summary: one of my favorite books
Review: I had to read "Summer of my German Soldier" for my English class during the summer and write a paper on it. I wasn't thrilled with the idea of having to spend my summer vacation reading a novel, but I read it. I loved it. Bette Greene is an extremely talented writer, and the story is very touching. It tells the story of a 12-year-old girl named Patty Bergen whose decision to shelter a German prisoner goes against the will of her father and almost everyone else in her town. The fact that Patty is so physically and emotionally abused by her bitter father is disturbing, but the love that Patty receives from her housekeeper Ruth and the German prisoner whom she shelters gives the novel a touch of hope. I won't give any more of the novel away, all I'll say is that this is an enjoyable story, well-written and poignant. Recommended reading for anyone, teenager or older.
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Summary: Summer of My German Soldier
Review: I just read "Summer of My German Soldier", by Bette Greene. I thought that this was a really terrific book. It is the story of Patty Bergen, a Jewish girl in the South during WWII, who makes friends with a Nazi soldier. She makes friends with him because she her parents are mean to her and she wants companionship and love. This was a wonderful book with characters so real that I could feel what they were feeling and think what they were thinking. After reading "Summer of My German Soldier", I had tons of questions about the book and about the author. I wanted to know if any of it was based on a true story. I also wondered if Bette Greene's life influenced her to write the book in any way. So I did some research on the internet, and I found out that there's a webpage about the author and the book! It's at bettegreene.com and it has tons of useful and interesting information. Plus, you can email Bette Greene about her books! I recommend that you read this book and look at the website to get answers to the questions I know you'll have.
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Summary: Too Much Criticism!
Review: If you too deeply analyze the war aspects, the "bad choices" of the girl, or the one sidedness in this book then you miss the entire meaning of the book, one of someone being loved by the first time in her life, this book is a heart warming story of love and the extents you go to for love, so read this book, and don't criticize it for its flaws because it is a spectacular book .
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Summary: Exciting drama and romance!!
Review: Summer of my german soldier is a really heart-moving,tear dropping romance,action and drama story.About a 12 year old girl named Patty bergan who lives in arkansas jenkinsville during WWII when she sees a camping house come into her town with other Nazis.Along the way she meets Anton, a lonely prisoned German P.o.w!! but mainly, this book has taught me alot about how you treat other people and that you shouldnt abuse them because everyone needs to be loved and cared for like they wanted for.Patty feels left-out and concerned because of rejection and lack of love from her mother or father and she thinks Ruth, her house keeper was the only one who's really concerned about you.The movie was really great too i give 2 thumbs up and 5 stars,anyways the story kind of changed me in a way i'll never forget and it was really emotional how she would risk her life for a real true friend who cares about her and treats her like she's no different than anyone else.So i recommend this book to anyone who feels left-out or needs friendship or romance,action,drama,or anything they want to make them happy again.
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Summary: Book Review for Summer of My German Soldier
Review: Summer of My German Soldier is about a young adolescent 12 year-old-girl named Patty who is Jewish. She falls in love with a Nazi soldier when she is at her father's shop. He asks her what kind of pencil sharpener he should buy. He falls in love with her. Her grandmother then takes her out on a fancy train ride, and buys her new clothes. Patty loves this outing because her parents do not really understand her at back at home. Anton then escaped from the prison after her train ride with her grandmother. She feeds him, in her garage, and takes care of him, only until she has to eventually tell Ruth. He then leaves her. She often sees him walking, and calls out, but he does not hear her. One day when he actually heard her, she went inside the house and stole tons of food all for him. Later that day, her father comes home and notices a ring on her finger. She said that it was from a nice man who wanted food, so she gave it to him. Since she was so nice he gave her the ring, when it was really from Anton. Her father, as usual, got really upset at this, and suspected that he did something to her. She swore nothing happened, but with his stubborn mind, whacked her across the forehead. Ruth pampered and watched over her. Since Ruth was talking Patty's side, Patty's dad fired Ruth. It was the first time that she had ever been fired. Near the end of the book Patty hears that Anton gets killed, and is devastated. The overall book was enjoyable, but some did not really make sense. For example, even though we knew that the father of Patti was moody, it really did not make sense for him to beat her at the times that he did. When he was in the garage, and his temper rising, he slapped her across the face asking her where she got the ring. Secondly, I thought that some parts were rather slow, and did not need to be there. I would rate this book four stars out of five because I enjoyed the story, but some parts of the book did not need to be there, and some parts were slow.
Rating:
Summary: SUMMER OF MY GERMAN SOLDIER
Review: The summer of my German soldier takes place in Arkansas, during WWII. The story is about a girl named Patty who feels that her parents are mean and cruel to her because they don't appreciate anything she does for them. The only person who she can find acceptance in is her housekeeper, Ruth. Patty's small town in Jekingsville, becomes the site of a POW camp for German soldiers, and one day the soldiers are allowed to visit her father's department store to purchase some hats. Patty, who was working that day, met one of the German soldiers named Anton Reiker. Soon after, Anton escaped from the prison camp and hid out at Patty's house in her abandoned attic. Later her family found out what Patty has been up to.
If one of the characters were to run into trouble it would be Patty. In the book Patty makes wrong choices that get her in alot of trouble. Knowing that she is Jewish she's not allowed to talk to any of the German soldiers that come to her hometown. She disobeys and does it anyway. she helps the German soldier that escaped from the prison camp. Later in the story the FBI catches up to what Patty has been up to. Her hometown then turns against her and calls her a trader and sees her as a bad person.
My favorite character in the story is Patty Bergen. But, if I were in her place I don't think I would have done the same thing she did by helping the German prisoner who escaped the campsite. For example, it's like me hiding out Bin Laddin in my attic. I could never turn my back on my country and help him. Patty is a twelve-year old brave girl who takes the risk of hiding out a German prisoner. Her parents always brush her off to the side. Patty feels left out in her family kind of like an outcast. I can kind of understand were Patty is coming from for her to help that German soldier. Since her mother or father doesn't pay any attention to her she feels like she needs someone to talk to or any one that has interest in her and would care about her. She obviously doesn't care who it is because she starts talking to a German prisoner and he's in his twenty's. The thing that I like about her is that she's a good-hearted person.
If I were to relate to any of the characters, I think it would be Patty. I had an experience kind of similar to what Patty went through. My parents always told my sisters and me we weren't allowed to have a boyfriend until we were eighteen-years old. I was the one who disobeyed my parents. When I was about thirteen-years old I had a boyfriend anyway. I would lie to my parents about where I was going or whom I was going with. After a while I felt guilty, and I felt like I had to confess. I waited to long to tell them and they ended up finding out. After that it took me a while to earn my trust back from them. So I think it's best for parents to be open with their children. Don't tell your kids you can't do this, you can't go there, or you can't hang out with a certain person because they don't like them. Later in life their parents will realize they should not tell their kids "no" just for the heck of it or just to be strict. I could see who was a bad person to hang out with, or a bad place to go.
I enjoyed reading this book, but it took me a couple of chapters to get into it. I had a favorite part and a least favorite part. My favorite part was when Patty met the German soldier at her father's department store and supplied him with a place to stay, clothes, and food. My least favorite part of the story was when Patty's father beat her because he didn't like her friend Freddy. I don't think children should get beaten by their parents, especially a young twelve-year old. I could see if it was a little kid getting disciplined, but spanked on the hand.
I think I would recommend this book for someone else to read. It's a good book. The kind of person I recommend to read this book is a girl or boy who enjoys reading romantic stories.
Rating: 
Summary: Blah....
Review: This book is OK, I had to read it for school. It was bearable, but I wouldn't have read it if I had a choice. First of all, I'm not interested in World War 2, and secondly it seemed unrealistic for a realistic book. There were a few exciting parts, but I wouldn't recommend it.
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Summary: A Boring with a German Soldier
Review: This book is one of the my favorites. Its a romantic, exiting and tragic story about a friensdhip between a jewish girl and a german soldier during WWII. once you start reading, its hard to stop. the main characters, Patty and Anton, are impossible not to become attatched to. it can be dull in a few parts, but the story altoghether is worth it.
must read!
Rating:
Summary: One of my Favorites
Review: This book was on a list of recommended summer reading for my daughter. I was disturbed by the two sentence synopsis on the list and decided to purchase and read it myself to find out if the school to which I pay a princely sum every year, was indeed recommending a book with such a poor moral foundation. What I found out was that not only was the two-sentence synoposis accurate, the book was worse than described. (To get a plot summary look at some of the other reviews--I won't waste space with that here.) Nowhere in this book is there an acknowledgment that POWs--regardless of what their personal political stands may be--belong in POW camps until the end of hostilities. The heroine of this story is in fact championed for protecting an escaping POW. There had been no build up suggesting that conditions at the camp were subhuman, etc. No, he just didn't want to be there. He wasn't a Nazi, he was misunderstood, a product of his historical circumstance, etc. Our heroine's eventual punishment is presented as the result of an unfortunate legally-required minimum, not as an appropriate punishment for her actions. She is now the victim of a legal system that can't acknowledge her personal circumstances--her evil father and mother who through their lack of love drove her to want to help the German soldier. The fact is, our heroine's "protection" of the soldier is an indirect cause of his eventual death, something which never even seems to occur to the heroine--or to anyone else for that matter. It is odd that after portraying the soldier as having such great personal potential and goodness that he should be protected from internment at a POW camp, the author does nothing to suggest at his death that his life had any value beyond his relationship with our heroine. Even there his memory serves as nothing more than a foundation for her daydreams. And her daydreaming is not about his life cut short, it's about her playing the role of sympathetic visitor to his grieving mother in Germany! Not only does this story present extremely poor choices by a 12-year-old as praiseworthy, it never questions a relationship between a 12-year-old girl and a 19-year-old man, and it romanticizes death--a very unfortunate theme among much of what passes for award-worthy modern children's literature. Finally, all of the characters are completely one-dimensional. The heroine's parents are evil without explanation, the German soldier is a perfect gentleman, the townspeople are hysterical bigots, the heroine's black maid is wise and the only source of love for the heroine. With all the great literature out there, why do we have our children read this junk? What our children read is important and it is very disturbing that it appears from the other reviews that a great many schools seem to be using this book as part of a literature or history program. It is poor on all levels, poorly written, poor character and plot development, and poor moral lessons.
Rating: 
Summary: A review for parents
Review: This book was on a list of recommended summer reading for my daughter. I was disturbed by the two sentence synopsis on the list and decided to purchase and read it myself to find out if the school to which I pay a princely sum every year, was indeed recommending a book with such a poor moral foundation. What I found out was that not only was the two-sentence synoposis accurate, the book was worse than described. (To get a plot summary look at some of the other reviews--I won't waste space with that here.) Nowhere in this book is there an acknowledgment that POWs--regardless of what their personal political stands may be--belong in POW camps until the end of hostilities. The heroine of this story is in fact championed for protecting an escaping POW. There had been no build up suggesting that conditions at the camp were subhuman, etc. No, he just didn't want to be there. He wasn't a Nazi, he was misunderstood, a product of his historical circumstance, etc. Our heroine's eventual punishment is presented as the result of an unfortunate legally-required minimum, not as an appropriate punishment for her actions. She is now the victim of a legal system that can't acknowledge her personal circumstances--her evil father and mother who through their lack of love drove her to want to help the German soldier. The fact is, our heroine's "protection" of the soldier is an indirect cause of his eventual death, something which never even seems to occur to the heroine--or to anyone else for that matter. It is odd that after portraying the soldier as having such great personal potential and goodness that he should be protected from internment at a POW camp, the author does nothing to suggest at his death that his life had any value beyond his relationship with our heroine. Even there his memory serves as nothing more than a foundation for her daydreams. And her daydreaming is not about his life cut short, it's about her playing the role of sympathetic visitor to his grieving mother in Germany! Not only does this story present extremely poor choices by a 12-year-old as praiseworthy, it never questions a relationship between a 12-year-old girl and a 19-year-old man, and it romanticizes death--a very unfortunate theme among much of what passes for award-worthy modern children's literature. Finally, all of the characters are completely one-dimensional. The heroine's parents are evil without explanation, the German soldier is a perfect gentleman, the townspeople are hysterical bigots, the heroine's black maid is wise and the only source of love for the heroine. With all the great literature out there, why do we have our children read this junk? What our children read is important and it is very disturbing that it appears from the other reviews that a great many schools seem to be using this book as part of a literature or history program. It is poor on all levels, poorly written, poor character and plot development, and poor moral lessons.
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