Resistance

Resistance
By Jennifer A. Nielsen
Scholastic Press, 2018. 385 pages. Young Adult

In 1942 Chaya Lindner is a Jew living in Nazi occupied Poland. When her family starts to fall apart, Chaya uses her fair, Polish looking features to escape the ghetto and become a courier. Chaya travels between the Jewish ghettos of Poland, smuggling food, papers, weapons, and people. Determined to help her people, she jumps at the chance to join a resistance cell when she discovers one. However, when a raid on the Nazis’ supplies goes wrong, she is forced into a dangerous journey that has the potential to lead her to an even larger resistance uprising.

The hatred and dehumanization of Jews in WWII is horrific, and Chaya’s journey, the people she encounters, and the situations she faces are heartbreaking. That is expected in a book about WWII. What I found really striking is how history echoes itself, and I feel like this book is incredibly powerful and poignant given current social, political, and human rights issues. Chaya is a strong protagonist, but reasonably flawed. Characters have complex, realistic motivations, and make hard choices when faced with bleak options. I thought this was a fantastic book, but it definitely hits some tough topics.

ACS