Front Lines

Grant, Michael. Front Lines, Katherine Tegan Books, 2016.

The world is on the brink of a second world war, but something has changed from the history we know: the United States has extended the draft to include both male and female people over 18. This book follows three different girls who all enlist for various reasons and end up running into each other during the course of the war.

Told in alternating chapters among the three characters, this is a fairly standard war story with a small twist. It's still about training and fighting and killing people and questioning your motives, etc. etc. But the difference is that the three characters we follow are female, so in addition to typical soldier issues, they are also dealing with quite a bit of sexism (and racism, and classism, etc.). The three girls are from three very different parts of the country and each have their reasons for enlisting. This story is action-packed, fast-paced, and an easy book to recommend to teens.

Recommended for: teens
Red Flags: sexist, racist, homophobic slurs - all fitting with the time period depicted; violence
Overall Rating: 4/5 stars

Read-Alikes: All Quiet on the Western Front, Wolf by Wolf,Rose Under Fire

Wolf by Wolf

Graudin, Ryan. Wolf by Wolf. Little, Brown BYR, 2015.

WWII is over. Hitler won and has taken over all of Europe and Africa. He has split Asia with Japanese emperor Hirohito, who controls the Pacific. North and South America are so insignificant that they are not mentioned in this story. Each year there is a motorcycle race across Europe, Africa, and Asia, starting at Berlin and ending at Tokyo. Ten youths from Hitler's empire and ten from the Japanese empire compete for the trophy. Yael is a concentration camp survivor who has the ability to skin-shift; she can change her appearance so she looks like anyone else. Yael is determined to enter the race, win it, and earn a dance with Hitler at the Victor's Ball, where she will assassinate him.

Wow. That's about all I can say. It was so frustrating to have to put this book down so that I could work, sleep, eat, etc. The story is compelling and switches back and forth between Yael's past in the concentration camp and her current story as she attempts to survive a grueling international race. There's sabotage, back-stabbing, more sabotage, kidnapping, and of course the ultimate goal of Yael being able to get close enough to Hitler to kill him. I should have anticipated the ending, but I didn't, and I loved the surprise.

My only small objection to this story is that it falls into the category of "books about a girl who has special powers and is the only one who can save her society from falling into ruin" a la The Hunger Games or Divergent. The alternate history angle is a good one, though, and it was well worth reading. Recommended.

Recommended for: teens, tweens
Red Flags: German and Japanese profanity (mild), riders sabotage each other by drugging food/drink and by breaking their motorcycles, the main character is attempting to kill Hitler
Overall Rating: 5/5 stars

Read-Alikes: The Hunger Games, Dirt Bikes, Drones, and Other Ways to Fly, The Nazi Hunters: How a Team of Spies and Survivors Captured the World's Most Notorious Nazi

Fallout

Strasser, Todd.  Fallout. Candlewick Press, 2013.

What if the cold war had turned hot?  This book is an alternate history which follows Scott's family in 1962 as his dad builds a fallout shelter below their home, a bomb is dropped, and Scott's family and a few other people are inside the shelter and must try to survive until it's save to go above ground again.

What I liked: the 1960s setting was appropriate, and I could see this book being a good read-alike to The Wednesday Wars and other books about this era of history. The details as the characters ran out of food and had to deal with a lack of personal space and a possible lack of water as they were underground for two weeks.  Also, the "chapter in the present, then chapter in the past leading up to the present" format worked well for this story.

What I didn't like: The dad collected supplies for himself and his family, but when the bomb happened somehow other people made it out of their own houses, into Scott's house, into the room where the shelter door was, and they managed to get inside without getting hit by radiation.  Those same people - a dad and his daughter and another family of three - joined Scott, his brother, his parents, and their babysitter - in a shelter built for four people.  One of the men - who left his wife and his other child outside - was a jerk and I wanted to punch his face all the time.  He complained about there not being enough food, even though this wasn't his shelter.  He suggested killing Scott's mom, who was injured, and the babysitter, who was Black, so that there would be more food/water/air for the rest of them.  But unlike other characters I've hated (Professor Umbridge, anyone?), he didn't get his comeuppance at the end, and he didn't change.  If this character had been deleted, I probably would have really enjoyed this book.

Recommended for: teens, tweens
Red Flags: nudity (when they're in the shelter they start using their clothes for rags and TP), some mild language
Overall Rating: 3/5 stars

Conquistador

Stirling, S.M. Conquistador. New York: Putnam, 2003.

What if Columbus had never reached North America?  What if white man never touched these shores? How would our continent be different? Stirling explores this concept in his novel as one man in California discovers a portal in his basement.  This portal opens to a North America that has never been touched by settlers.  This portal is soon used to the best advantage: those who enter the portal live lives of oppulence beyond the gate, only returning to "the real world" to do business or gather supplies.  They carefully guard the secret of the gate, knowing the consequences of discovery would be significant.

This book is a fascinating page-turner.  I truly enjoyed the entire story and found the ending to be both surprising and satisfying.