AbrakaPOW

An aspiring young magician relocates to a camp for German prisoners of war in Abilene, Texas, in 1944 and inadvertently becomes part of a prisoner escape.A native New Yorker, 11-year-old Max, her mother, and her ferret, Houdini, move to Camp Barkeley, where Max's father's in charge of captured German soldiers. White, Jewish Max doesn't understand why her father's "babysitting the Nazis." Max muses to herself that "finding a kindred spirit here in cowboy land would be a magic trick even I wouldn't believe." Her smart mouth and superior attitude alienate classmates until the Gremlins, a group of misfits, adopt her. A prisoner named Felix convinces Max's father to let her entertain prisoners with a magic show, and she accepts Felix's offer to be in the final, vanishing act. When Felix disappears and other prisoners escape through a tunnel, Max feels responsible and participates in a series of dangerous plots to capture the escapees. Based on a real prisoner escape at the historic Camp Barkeley, this fictionalized version teems with kid pranks, friendly enemies, deceptive friends, and wartime xenophobia, all held together by a pushy heroine who "brings the magic." Illustrated magic tricks add hands-on entertainment. All the excitement, surprises, and tricks of a magic show. (author's note) (Historical fiction. 8-12) COPYRIGHT(1) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

November 1, 2016
Grades 5-8 Putting on a magic show for a camp full of German prisoners turns out to be considerably trickier than 11-year-old Maxine expects in this WWII-era tale. Transplanted from Brooklyn after her father assumes command of Camp Barkeley, Maxor The Amazing Max faces the double challenge of attending a new school and living amidst hundreds of GIs and POWs. When the show she puts together with help from Felix, a mild-mannered prisoner, turns out to mask an elaborate jailbreak, it becomes evident that she's not the only one with a talent for misdirection. As in his Johnny Cannon tales, Campbell requires extreme contrivances to make the plot work, but the hair-raising result is so much fun that it's hard to mind. Though the author tucks in references to same-sex attractions among characters that are too oblique to be more than check-offs, he does give several cast members hidden depths. Moreover, he inserts directions for several magic tricks and brings the story, loosely based on true events, to a nonviolent, upbeat resolution.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)