The Enemy

January 16, 2017
As 12-year-old Marjorie Campbell navigates the standard awkwardness and small cruelties of sixth-grade life in 1954, she is increasingly plagued by questions. Should she befriend the new girl in school, who claims to be from Canada but seems undeniably German? Should she participate in the slam book her supposed best friend Bernadette has initiated? What about the books her college-educated, independent-thinking mother smuggled out of the library and stashed under Marjorie’s bed? Does wearing a red scarf make her a Commie sympathizer, as Bernadette asserts? And what’s worse, anyway, a Nazi or a Commie? Holbrook (Weird? Let’s Be Friends) brings home the complexities of the Cold War era in a multicultural Detroit neighborhood where neighborliness and name-calling coexist. With a WWII veteran father with PTSD and an annoying fatherless teenage boy living in her family’s basement, Marjorie is a sympathetic character whose struggles to understand fear and prejudice, as embodied in her friends and family, resonate sharply in today’s political climate. An author’s note explains Holbrook’s personal connections to the story and offers further historical detail about the era. Ages 10–14.

February 1, 2017

Gr 5-8-One aspect of becoming an adult-and a dominant theme in this book-is developing the understanding that our perceptions of the truth can be wrong. Marjorie is 12 years old and lives in 1950s Detroit. Not only is her family affected by the fear of communism but her father still struggles as a result of his time fighting in World War II. When Inga Scholtz, a new student from Germany, is seated next to Marjorie in class, the protagonist begins to grapple with her preconceptions and prejudices. Furthering Marjorie's anxiety and confusion, her friends create the "Slam Book" to shame Inga. When everything comes to a head, Marjorie learns that true bravery is standing up to those who use prejudice and untruth to bully and humiliate others. Marjorie is a young woman living in a time when biased opinions are too easily distorted into fact. Holbrook uses her own firsthand knowledge, from her childhood in the 1950s, to demonstrate the impact that the outside political and social climate has on Marjorie and her family. Read-alikes include Christine Kohler's No Surrender Soldier, Monika Schroder's My Brother's Shadow, and Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch's Making Bombs for Hitler.

Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 15, 2017
Poet Holbrook brings back the Cold War in her debut novel for middle grades. White sixth-grader Marjorie has lots to worry about in the late winter of 1954. Her father came back from World War II jumpy and abrupt. She's not a fan of Frank, the 18-year-old orphan her father took in, or Carol Anne, her skittish 6-year-old sister. She's best friends with Bernadette, also white, who rules the sixth grade and would make the world's worst enemy, and she just got assigned to share a school desk with Inga, a "displaced person" whom Bernadette has decided to hate. Inga came to Detroit from Canada, but she speaks, sounds, and looks German. Marjorie is drawn to Inga, who's sunny, determined, and kind, but she's afraid to befriend her. Meanwhile Sen. Joe McCarthy's national hunt for Communists has led to the banning of many books from public libraries; in defiance of her husband's direct orders, Marjorie's mother hides a box of rescued banned books under Marjorie's bed. Holbrook pulls elements of the story from her own multicultural childhood in Detroit after the war. She's ace at delineating the petty jealousies and tyrannies of middle school girls, and her evocation of the era feels absolutely true. Marjorie's cowardice and ultimate courage lead to a rousingly satisfying ending that, if it doesn't quite tie up all the plot threads, will resonate with readers. A solid fictional examination of a time rarely depicted for this age group. (Historical fiction. 10-14)

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