What This Book Is About
After Kristallnacht, eleven-year-old Max Bretzfeld is put on a Kindertransport train out of Berlin and sent to England without his parents. In London he is taken in by the Montagus, an aristocratic British Jewish family. Two invisible spirits ride on his shoulders and argue in his ears.
Max works out that one of the Montagus is a British intelligence officer, and that the household is in the business of running spies. He is not hiding in this house; he is a refugee being housed in it. What he wants is to be trained and sent back to Berlin, because his parents are still there.
Adam Gidwitz, the author of The Inquisitor's Tale, builds a spy story on top of the real history of the Kindertransport.
Available at Popular bookstores, Kinokuniya, and the Singapore National Library.
Why We Recommend This Book
For B1-level students (G6-G8), this book is an excellent choice for three reasons.
First, WWII and the Holocaust are core components of international school history curricula, and the Kindertransport, the evacuation of Jewish children out of Nazi Germany, is a part of that history students rarely meet in a textbook. This book gives them an age-appropriate way into it.
Second, the spy and thriller format keeps reluctant readers hooked while delivering serious historical content. Many students who struggle with traditional historical fiction find this book unputdownable because the tension never lets up—every chapter ends with a reason to keep going.
Third, at Lexile ~780L, it offers solid B1-level reading with enough complexity to develop inference and critical analysis skills. Gidwitz trusts readers to work out what the adults around Max are really doing before Max says it out loud—building exactly the kind of reading-between-the-lines skills that IB English demands.
Reading Level Guide
Too challenging at A2. Start with The Night Raven or El Deafo for a gentler entry into historical fiction.
Perfect difficulty. Challenging enough to grow, accessible enough to enjoy.
Comfortable read at B2. Consider The Radium Girls (Young Readers’ Edition) or Legend for a greater challenge.
Other UWC Recommended Books for This Grade
Not sure if this book is right for your child? Take our free 30-minute English assessment to find their CEFR level, then choose books that match.