Review by New York Times Review
Shuttling Spitfires between British factories and air bases is the closest Rose, 18, a transport pilot and fledgling poet from Pennsylvania, is supposed to get to the Allied war effort. But on a rare flight over France, Rose pursues a self-piloted bomb and knocks it off course. Exultation turns to terror when Nazi fighter jets ground her plane in Germany and she is sent to Ravensbrück, the notorious women's concentration camp. Presumed dead by her parents, Rose joins a ragtag prison family of French spies, Red Army servicewomen and Polish "rabbits," the survivors of grotesque Nazi medical experiments. Their acts of solidarity help keep her alive. Her poetry also provides sustenance: an inmate offers bread in exchange for original verses and Rose recites a counting rhyme to survive a vicious beating. Wein's second World War II adventure novel - the first, "Code Name Verity," was highly praised last year - captures poignantly the fragility of hope and the balm forgiveness offers. Rose frames it best in a poem beseeching soldiers to fight "not to destroy all the world's wrong, but to renew its good."
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [October 6, 2013]
Review by Booklist Review
In this companion to Code Name Verity (2012), readers meet American Rose Justice, who ferries Allied planes from England to Paris. The first quarter of the book, which begins in 1944, describes Rose's work, both its dangers and its highs. It also makes the connection between Rose and the heroine of the previous book, Julie, through their mutual friend, Maddie. Despite the vagaries of war, things are going pretty well for Rose, so hearts drop when Rose is captured. It first seems Rose's status as a pilot may save her, but she is quickly shipped off to Ravensbruck, the notorious women's concentration camp in Northern Germany. The horror of the camp, with its medical experimentation on Polish women called rabbits is ably captured. Yet, along with the misery, Wein also reveals the humanity that can surface, even in the worst of circumstances. The opening diary format is a little clunky, but readers will quickly become involved in Rose's harrowing experience. Though the tension is different than in Code Name Verity, it is still palpable.--Cooper, Ilene Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
This companion to Wein's Printz Honor- and Edgar-winning Code Name Verity introduces Rose Justice, a Pennsylvania teenager and volunteer civilian pilot during WWII. Rose is ferrying a Spitfire back to England from France for the Royal Air Force when she is captured by Nazis and sent to Ravensbruck, the women's concentration camp. Designated a "skilled" worker, Rose is assigned to a factory; when she realizes that she's making bomb fuses, she stops working. Two brutal beatings later, she is reassigned to the high-security unit at the camp, where she is taken under the wing of the "Rabbits"--Polish political prisoners whose bodies have been horrifically abused by Nazi doctors for medical experimentation. Because Rose recounts her capture and imprisonment after the fact, in a journal, initially for cathartic purposes, her story doesn't have the same harrowing suspense of Code Name Verity, but it's no less intense and devastating. Eventually, Rose realizes the true purpose of the journal is to fulfill the promise she made to her Ravensbruck sisters: to tell the world what happened there. Wein excels at weaving research seamlessly into narrative and has crafted another indelible story about friendship borne out of unimaginable adversity. Ages 14-up. Agent: Ginger Clark, Curtis Brown. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Poignant and memorable, Wein's follow-up to Code Name Verity gives listeners a look at World War II through the eyes of pilot Rose Justice. Rose ferries planes for the Allies, moving them to whatever airport or military outpost needs them. When she is captured by Nazis and sent to Ravensbruck, a concentration camp for women, Rose uses poetry as a way to express herself through this horrific time and connect with the other inmates. Sasha Park's narration is phenomenal, neatly balancing the American, Polish, German, and English accents the text requires. VERDICT Highly recommended for all library collections.-Stephanie Charlefour, Garden City P.L., MI (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 9 Up-Wein has crafted another stunner in this companion novel (2013) to Code Name Verity (2012, both Hyperion) Listeners reconnect with Maddie, who is mourning her late friend Julie, as she befriends a young American pilot named Rose Justice. Rose loves to fly and has entered the war effort on behalf of the British Air Force, transporting planes and people wherever they're needed, until she is taken captive while flying over France. The title character ends up in Ravensbruck, the infamous women's concentration camp run by the Nazis, and experiences the excruciating horrors and intense friendships such a place can create. As possibly the only American in Ravensbruck, Rose bonds with the "Rabbits," a group of women from a variety of backgrounds who were horribly experimented on by the Nazis, as well as French resistance workers and a Russian aviator. Not all of them make it out alive. Listeners learn earlier on that Rose does survive the camp, which makes hearing about the atrocities committed there a bit less harrowing, although many parts are still very difficult to listen to. Narrator Sasha Pick does a nice job depicting the American Rose, but she is less successful portraying characters with other accents. In a nice touch, the author narrates her own notes and acknowledgements. Pleasant music separates the discs.-Julie Paladino, East Chapel Hill High School, NC (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
Wein plunges into difficult territory in this engrossing companion novel to her lavishly honored Code Name Verity (rev. 5/12). Rose Justice, eighteen-year-old American pilot, delivers personnel and planes for Britains Air Transport Auxiliary. On her way home from liberated Paris in 1944, shes captured by Germans and sent to Ravensbrck, the notorious womens concentration camp, where shes beaten, starved, and forced to transport corpses of fellow prisoners. Shes also befriended by the Rabbitsvictims of Nazi doctors heinous medical experiments. Once again Wein has written a powerful, moving story of female friendship in World War II; her decision to tell the story as a combination of journal entries, letters, and survivors account softens but doesnt compromise the forthrightness with which she writes about Ravensbrck. I did not make [it] up, she writes in her afterword. It really happened to 150,000 women. Roses characterpilot, poet, former Girl Scout, survivor, and friendbecomes increasingly rich, deep, and nuanced, most compellingly in response to the French, Russian, and Polish women who befriend her. In plot and character this story is consistently involving, a great, page-turning read; just as impressive is how subtly Wein brings a respectful, critical intelligence to her subject. deirdre f. baker (c) Copyright 2013. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
After a daring attempt to intercept a flying bomb, a young American pilot ferrying planes during World War II is captured by the Nazis in this companion to Printz Honorwinning Code Name Verity (2012). After being brutally punished for her refusal to make fuses for flying bombs and having "more or less forgotten who [she] was," Rose is befriended by Polish "Rabbits," victims of horrific medical experimentation. She uses "counting-out rhymes" to preserve her sanity and as a way to memorize the names of the Rabbits. Rose's poetry, a panacea that's translated and passed through the camp, is at the heart of the story, revealing her growing understanding of what's happening around her. As the book progresses, Wein masterfully sets up a stark contrast between the innocent American teen's view of an untarnished world and the realities of the Holocaust, using slices of narrative from characters first encountered in the previous book. Recounting her six months in the Ravensbrck concentration camp through journal entries and poems, Rose honors her commitment to tell the world of the atrocities she witnessed. Readers who want more Code Name Verity should retool their expectations; although the story's action follows the earlier book's, it has its own, equally incandescent integrity. Rich in detail, from the small kindnesses of fellow prisoners to harrowing scenes of escape and the Nazi Doctors' Trial in Nuremburg, at the core of this novel is the resilience of human nature and the power of friendship and hope. (Historical fiction. 14 up)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
