Teen Tuesday: White Rose by Kip Wilson

Image: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

White Rose by Kip Wilson. 358 p. Versify/ Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, April, 2019. 9781328594433. Review of purchased finished copy.)

During Hitler's rise to power, Sophie Scholl, like most young Germans, joined the Hitler Youth. Her older brothers eventually joined the German Army. Her boyfriend was also enlisted in the army. Instead of blindly following Hitler's edicts, Sophie and her brothers soon realized that Hitler's tactics were unconscionable. They believed that they were complicit by staying silent, but protesting was treasonous. Sophie and her brothers procured a copy machine and were soon printing and distributing anti-propaganda fliers that called out Hitler.

The verse novel flashes backward and forward and is told mostly from Sophie's POV. The spare yet often searing free-verse poems compel and the tension ratchets up with each page turn. Sophie's fear is palpable but so is her resolve, which should prompt most readers into reflecting about what they would do in a similar situation. 

I haven't had tremendous success book talking Russell Freedman's astounding, We Will Not be Silent: the White Rose Student Resistance Movement. Reading White Rose might be a way into the work of non-fiction. 

White Rose is a remarkable debut. It belongs in every public, school and classroom library!