She has become a supporter of Hitler, and according to the new laws, it is possible that Friedrich might need to be sterilized because they wouldn't want him passing on the birthmark that is hereditary. When his sister Elisabeth comes home from nursing school, supposedly to begin working with their local doctor, things change. But Friedrich and his father and Uncle Gunter are not supporters. This is a time when Hitler is coming to power. Then in the afternoon he gave him lessons, as well as other people working at the factory that helped with his education. Because of that, and the fact that he seemed to hear music and be conducting it all the time, he was made fun of in school, so his father brought him to work at the harmonica factory with him in the mornings. We leave Otto's story and jump into Friedrich's story in 1933 Germany.įriedrich is a young boy with a birthmark on his face. We don't know exactly what happens to it after that. Otto actually meets the 3 girls in the fairy tale, and they give him a harmonica that has some magic in it, to help save someone. I don't know, but it was fun to read it if it was true.

I think it means, something like, all in free. What's pretty cool about this first part, is that now I understand why we say 'Olly olly oxen free!' Because it comes from the German words, 'Alle, alle auch sind frei,' or maybe it does. Otto found a book and read it when he was hiding in the forest from his friends during a game of Hide and Seek.

The story begins with a little fairy tale/legend found by a boy named Otto, 50 years before World War II began. While it is maybe more of a middle school book, it is about the time surrounding World War II and looks at the war from different places and different stations in life.

The blurb definitely caught my attention, and I'm so glad that I gave it a chance.

I'd read the author before, and really enjoyed her work, but this was another one that seemed a bit younger than I usually read these days. At first when I received this I was unsure. I don't know if I requested it through a Shelf Awareness giveaway, or if I have maybe got a contact in Scholastic since I emailed last fall and requested Blue Lily, Lily Blue when I was turned down for an egalley of it. I'm not sure exactly who to thank for the ARC of this that I received in the mail about a month ago.

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