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    After the Train
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    After the Train
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    After the Train
    Ebook130 pages2 hours

    After the Train

    By Gloria Whelan

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Peter Liebig can't wait for summer. He's tired of classrooms, teachers, and the endless lectures about the horrible Nazis. The war has been over for ten years, and besides, his town of Rolfen, West Germany, has moved on nicely. Despite its bombed-out church, it looks just as calm and pretty as ever. There is money to be made at the beach, and there are whole days to spend with Father at his job. And, of course, there's soccer. Plenty for a thirteen-year-old boy to look forward to.

    But when Peter stumbles across a letter he was never meant to see, he unravels a troubling secret. Soon he questions everything—the town's peaceful nature, his parents' stories about the war, and his own sense of belonging.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateOct 6, 2009
    ISBN9780061975776
    Unavailable
    After the Train
    Author

    Gloria Whelan

    <p>Gloria Whelan is the bestselling author of many novels for young readers, including <em>Homeless Bird</em>, winner of the National Book Award; <em>Fruitlands: Louisa May Alcott Made Perfect</em>; <em>Angel on the Square</em>; <em>Burying the Sun</em>; <em>Once on This Island</em>, winner of the Great Lakes Book Award; and <em>Return to the Island</em>. She lives in the woods of northern Michigan.</p>

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    Reviews for After the Train

    3.5/5

    23 ratings5 reviews

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    • 3/5
      Post-war. Interesting premise.
    • 3/5
      Children's Books Too Cool For SchoolI was distinctly underwhelmed by this little post-Holocaust tale set in Germany shortly after the war. Although it seemed to want to have a strong didactic bent, trying to drive home messages about tolerance and the importance of history, the story's very distance in time, location, and circumstance to its own ideal reader makes that message likely to fall flat. It is a highly literary little volume, but for all that, I wonder who's going to read it? And more to the point, love it?After the Train tells the story of a young German boy sick of hearing about the Jews. Not that he suffers from any antisemitic notions, but rather that for a young boy who doesn't really remember the war, the whole thing seems so distant now. However, a few things in his life make him begin to question these feelings. He notices that not everyone seems to have moved beyond Jew-hatred. Then the real bombshell drops -- he finds he's adopted, and (not surprisingly) Jewish.So what does that make him? Should he eat pork? Should he go to synagogue? And how will this change how the world around him reacts to him?While interesting in premise, the whole thing may be just a wee bit to cerebral for this age. There isn't any real driving crisis or moment of tension. It really is mostly a quick read about a boy's image of himself after he discovers the story of his rescue from a cattle car headed to a concentration camp. It's very well-written, but, again, it doesn't really seem to have an audience.On the plus side for those that like to introduce a subject like the Holocaust with gentleness, the book is remarkably free of violence and only very lightly touches on the subject of Nazi behavior towards Jews.Good for girls and boys around 10-12.
    • 4/5
      Different approach to war's end in Germany. 1955 time frame. The MC finds out he is really a Jewish child given up by his mother before she leaves for a concentration camp.
    • 5/5
      Ten years after the end of the Second World War, the town of Rolfen, West Germany, looks just as peaceful and beautiful as ever, until young Peter Liebig discovers a secret about his past that leads him to question everything, including the town's calm facade and his own sense of comfort and belonging.
    • 2/5
      Why was this book so disappointing? I guess I didn't read much about the plot before I checked it out--I was hoping for another Boy in the Striped Pajamas. But whatever the reason, this story really failed to captivate in any meaningful way. I doubt I'll remember it a year from now. I would not necessarily recommend this book to parents or avid readers.