Review: I Am Defiance
I Am Defiance: A Novel of WWII by Jenni L. Walsh Scholastic Press Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Chava Pinchuck Buy at Bookshop.org This fictional story is narrated in the first person, present by Brigitte Schmidt, a twelve-year-old girl living in Munich in the early 1940s. She goes to Jungmädelbund (Young Girls’ League) (JM) meetings with her best friend Marianne. Their group leader, Elisabeth, encourages the girls to “report” to her, and Brigitte is conflicted. Her older sister Angelika had polio, and she and her father fear that if people notice her limp, she will be sent away. Brigitte often feels this tension of whether she is a “good German” or a good daughter and sister when she does not agree with the anti-Semitic dogma taught at JM meetings. When Angelika has to fulfill her national service requirement by working in a munitions factory in Ulm, she meets the charismatic Sophie, who will be attending university with her. Soon there are more secrets in Brigitte’s house, as...