The Wall

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Every word in this account of life in East Germany just prior to reunification might be true, but Lutzeier's horrified tones and monolithic approach undercut her credibility. When Hannah's mother is killed while trying to drive across the Berlin Wall, Hannah and her father must feign indifference in order to keep the authorities from declaring their home unfit. Hannah's best friend defects with her family, and Hannah takes up with a freethinker named Steffi, who inspires her to acts of defiance. The atmosphere is almost inescapably repressive: the school monitors their private lives; participation in Party functions is virtually mandatory; Big Brother sees and hears everything. Hannah's astonishment and the freshness of her outrage at the regime she's grown up with smack of the propagandist's trade. Ages 10-14. (Oct.)

School Library Journal

Gr 6 Up-- Hannah's mother is shot and killed trying to cross the Berlin Wall just six months before it falls. This foreknowledge granted to readers gives the book a sense of irony that at times is almost unenduringly heavy. Her mother's death puts a strain on the girl and her father that almost drives them apart while she grows closer to Steffi, a girl her own age who seems so daring and free of the fears that grip Hannah. This novel does a good job of re-creating an oppressive atmosphere of mistrust, suspicion, and lies. Hannah is not even allowed to grieve for her mother, for to do would draw attention to her father and herself. She cannot talk to her father about her mother or her own growing involvement with the freedom movement. It's not until the end that she discovers that he, too, has been secretly working for liberation. This is not only a unique view of a specific historical event, but also an affirmation of the power of a people to speak and be heard, and, through diligence and perseverance, to topple a tyrannical regime. --Susan M. Harding, Mesquite Public Library, TX

Sheilamae O'Hara

Lutzeier gives a glimpse of life in East Berlin in the 1980s as seen through the eyes of two adolescent girls, Hannah and Steffi. Hannah's mother is killed trying to crash through the Berlin Wall, and Hannah is unable to mourn her loss for fear of being accused of complicity and separated from her father. She becomes a facile liar, keeping her emotions hidden from everyone, even her father. Steffi is rebellious and has been expelled from several schools for overtly questioning official political doctrine. The two girls become friends and then become involved in peace marches, risking their lives to bring change to their country. The plot shows that the greatest hardship of life in totalitarian East Germany was not the low standard of living but the constant fear and mistrust deliberately engendered in the citizens. The book ends dramatically and contemporarily with the tearing down of the wall.