Guest post by Padma Venkatraman

WHITE ROSE

By Kip Wilson

Pub date: April 2, 2019

Ages: 12 and up

Publisher: Versify, an imprint of Houghton Mifflin Harcout.

 

White Rose is a work of historical fiction that resurrects a story that is not often told, the story of Sophie Scholl, a young German woman who galvanized a resistance against the suffocating horror of their Nazi regime.

 

Rather than tell this tale in a linear fashion, Wilson chooses a non-linear plot-line, beginning with “the end”: with the interrogation of Scholl and her brother, who have been arrested by the Nazis for protesting nonviolently (by distributing leaflets and creating graffiti that campaigned for active rebellion against Hitler’s totalitarian regime of terror).  Wilson carefully intersperses the past into this narrative as Sophie  remembers key incidents in her young life and the events that caused her to be imprisoned by the Nazis, but she does this deftly, so that one never experiences the boredom that may sometimes be induced by “flashbacks” – we are in the past and in the present, together with Sophie, always. As we see through her eyes, her terror heightens, and so does the question of her fate – for her life and the life of her beloved brother lie in the hands of the Nazis.

 

Sophie, like any other young adolescent, seeks to define who she is. She falls in love with a young man who becomes a soldier in the Nazi army and struggles against the conflict between her attraction to him and the ideals the regime espouses. Her supportive father encourages her to be an independent woman who speaks her mind despite the prevailing rhetoric of the times. The Scholl family is brave at a time when many others capitulate and remain silent and submissive, as anti-Semitic signs begin “to appear like/ mushrooms after rain” in their neighborhood.

 

Sophie wants to become an artist and the “idyll of [her]/ childhood is stomped” upon, she realizes that becoming an artist involves becoming a “fully realized/ human being.” As the world around her continues to disintegrate and alarming violence spreads, she grows stronger and braver, instead of giving way to despair.

 

At this politically charged time in our nation, I found this story particularly relevant, in terms of Sophie’s outspokenness and her ability to take action against policies she opposed. It left me hoping, as Sophie does, that we may “all become/ so noble” for

Sophie’s courage surfaces and forces her to act, despite the terror she also experiences in a desperate situation.

 

In the interest of full disclosure, I must end by saying that Sophie’s story is one that I heard when I worked in Germany and I’d always thought I’d write about someday because it deserves a broader audience. So the facts of her story were close to my heart, and it was a pleasure to read them brought to life through historical fiction. I must also confess that Wilson attended one of my writing workshops and I am admittedly delighted to see a former “mentee” who is now a colleague – it is always a special delight when a student’s books share shelf space with one’s own.  Finally, I must add that this review was based on an ARC.

 

Award winning American author, Padma Venkatraman worked as chief scientist on oceanographic ships, spent time under the sea, directed a school, and lived in 5 countries before settling down in Rhode Island.Her middle grade debut, THE BRIDGE HOME, a contender for the Global Read Aloud initiative is available for pre-order and is scheduled for release in  2019 February. Her previous 3 novels, A TIME TO DANCE, ISLAND’S END and CLIMBING THE STAIRS, were each released to multiple starred reviews (totaling 12), have been cited on ~50 best books lists (e.g. NYPL, Kirkus, Booklist, ALA notable) and have won numerous honors and awards: Paterson Prize, Boston Authors Club Julia Ward Howe Award, RI Book of the Year, Singapore Children’s Choice Red Dot Award, South Asia Book Award etc. She enjoys teaching, mentoring, participating on panels, giving commencement speeches and providing keynote addresses at national conferences, has been chief guest at international literary festivals. Most recently, she was a guest on a national PBS program, and she has previously been a guest on national and international TV and radio, and in a documentary. Visit her at www.padmavenkatraman.comand on twitter @padmatv