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Oct 20, 2007

Adam rated it:

OK, I lied. THIS is the worst book I've ever been FORCED to read. Note to teachers, if you make your students read this, THEN YOU ARE PART OF THE PROBLEM! Have you ever wondered why kids don't like reading? It's because of books like these. And, if you continue to say that this book ties in with whatever WWII lesson your teaching, then I truly feel sorry. Not for the teachers, but for the students. Plain and simple, this book sucks. To the teachers who make their kids read this, I advise you to More...

9 comments like (11 people liked it)

Jul 05, 2008

booklady rated it:

I wonder if I can ever do this story justice. It's about a young Jewish girl during WWII who befriends a German POW held in a camp near her small Arkansas town. That's the plot, but really it's about so much more: about learning to like and love yourself even when significant others don't; about salvific power of love and kindness; about true agape love.

Some might be tempted to reduce Summer to a modern day Romeo and Juliette story minus the romance, violence and suicides. It i More...

3 comments like (9 people liked it)

May 09, 2010

Madeline rated it:

Another book I was forced to read for school and consequently now despise to the depths of my soul. But really, it's crap on its own. A twelve year old girl, complete with an abusive father and lacking the three c's of an interesting protagonist (Confidence, Common sense, and Character), gets the brilliant idea of hiding an escaped German POW in her garage. And for an added dramatic twist, SHE'S JEWISH! How's THAT for exciting conflict?
Yeah, not so much. Simply put, this book made me want More...

4 comments like (3 people liked it)

Nov 15, 2007

Hello rated it:

PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD IF U HAVE ANY SENSE IN YOU DONT READ THIS BOOK

now that thats over I tell you the truth......the screaming is what you are going to be doing on every single page of this book

there are so many things I would rather do than this, like get punched by everyone in my school or watch teletubies and dora for 1 week striat (never doing anything else)

seriously if you see thsi book burn it and dance around the fire laughing like a maniac

4 comments like (6 people liked it)

Jan 30, 2011

Dominic rated it:

I find I've been reading a lot of YA novels about males, so my wife suggested I read this one, a favorite from her adolescence.

Turns out Patty Bergen is a fantastic young adult narrator, a girl who just may have the most wretched parents I've ever read about.

Summer of My German Soldier is a unique sort of book, and it is beautifully written. It is a story about the Holocaust, but it's set in Arkansas. It was a new perspective on this horrible part of our human history. Pat More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 04, 2008

Annette rated it:

When I heard that this book was about a romance between a 12 yr. old and a 22 yr. old I didn't think that I would like it, but it's not a mushy-gushy romance, its more of a friendship really.

My favorite character was Ruth. "Honey Babe",in my opinion this book would have been a complete wash if it hadn't been for Ruth.
I liked this book because it made me think. After I read it I was wishing that I had a group of people to discuss it with. If I were to lead a group More...

3 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jan 08, 2008

Will.i.am rated it:

This was one of the best books that I read. It had a lot of things going on in it. Patty is the main character in this story. She has a normal life, however, it becomes much more interesting as it goes. The setting of this story takes place during WWII. It's about the POW's (Prisoner's of War) and how one of them escaped. His name was Frederick Anton Riecker. Patty see's him at the local drug store that her family owns. He buys some items from her but there was something that felt speci More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 08, 2010

H.orses rated it:

Oh this book was awesome! It is an amazing love story between a Jewish girl and an escaped German Soldier, it shows what they both with risk and how life during the war was for families. The main character Patty, lives with a dysfunctional family and an abusive father. Wanted by the police Anton will risk his cover and Patty with house the enemy. And in the end it all comes down to one memory that could make or break them both. With a surprising twisting end I loved this book and I wanted to kee More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 15, 2009

Sunny added it

Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Greene
8/10. This book is moving, at times difficult to read, and the phrases are yummy.
Basic Plot: Patty Bergen is a skinny, auburn haired Jewish girl in small town Arkansas, during WWII. Her mother can't be bothered with her except to criticise her, and her father violently beats her when she misbehaves even a little. Both parents favour her pretty younger sister. Her only real friend is Ruth, the family's housekeeper. Then, she meets Anton, a Germ More...

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Oct 24, 2011

Sara rated it:

Summer of my German Soldier by Bette Greene tells the story of a Patti, a tortured and abused Jewish girl during World War II who houses and falls for a Nazi Soldier who escaped from a POW camp in their small southern town. The story begins with a letter from the author telling the reader that after keeping things quiet for years to save her family she now admits that the story is based off her life. Patti is a girl who just doesn't fit in, she's the only Jewish girl in a small town living wit More...

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Jun 29, 2011

jennifer rated it:

Twelve year-old Patty Bergen lives in a small Arkansas town during WWII. Her parents dislike Patty intensely, she isn't allowed to play with the poor children and there aren't many Jewish families in the area, so when her friends go to Baptist camp for the summer, Patty has little to do other than try to help in her parent's department store. Then some German prisoners are brought to a detention camp nearby and taken to buy supplies in the Bergen's store. And when one young prisoner escapes from More...

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Apr 15, 2011

Julie rated it:

Just read this in a few hours this week. I did not care for it, and I wonder why it is so frequently taught in middle schools. The main character is engaging, but all the other characters except for Anton are just a bundle of stereotypes. Her parents are abusive monsters with no redeeming features, quite one-dimensional; her nanny is perfect in every way, really the Mammy stereotype, I felt. And then there's the ickiness factor: the main character is 12 and the German soldier is 20. Most o More...

2 comments like

Apr 09, 2011

Leane rated it:

Ugh! Why didn't I like this book?! I've been wanting to read this for years and years, knowing that it was a classic YA novel. I mean, it started out good, but then it just...ended? I assumed, as I think most people do, that the main character, Patty, falls in love with the Nazi soldier she is hiding. Right? Wrong. Not only are they too far apart in age, he is only with her for about 2 days. They do share a kiss, but then nothing happens after that. I seriously think this girl is so tir More...

0 comments like

Jan 26, 2011

Melissa rated it:

I had heard many good things about this book. While it was an interesting idea for a book, I found that I just couldn't connect with any of the characters or even the storyline for that matter.

Patty is a twelve year old girl who lives with her parents and sister and is cared for by a nice woman named Ruth. A little bit on the wild side, Patty is definitely not her parent's favored child. In fact, it seems like they'd like her to just disappear. She tries to be helpful and kind and make More...

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Mar 27, 2010

Mimi rated it:

I honestly didn't really like this book. I thought I would, because it's a famous one or classic one, but I didn't.

I did like the character of Anton. I can't imagine how horrible it would be to be in medical school to become a doctor, then have a political group you don't agree with gain control of your country, get drafted in the army, become a prisoner of war, labor in fields, escape, and then get shot and die. Thus ending the promising life of a would-be doctor and genuinely nice More...

1 comment like

Aug 13, 2009

Christina rated it:

When I first read this book, I thought it was amazing. I loved it. I was sucked into it. I wanted to be the girl, and I wanted my own German soldier (sort of). When I read it, I think I was the same age as the girl, so I had the same little tween fantasies, haha. In case you haven't read it, it's about a 12- or 13-year-old Jewish girl who meets a German soldier (during WWII, mind you) in her little down (in Alabama?) where there is a big POW camp/prison. Her father owns a general store, and occa More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 10, 2011

Heather rated it:

I had a little bit of a hard time with how sad this book was--I identified a lot with the main character. My parents weren't like hers, but I've experienced some of the same issues with feeling like there wasn't much love among the adults around me and always internalizing it as though the fault were in me. So reading about Patty going through the same thing and not realizing that it wasn't her fault that her father beat her and her mother was a witch was hard for me.

Plus, one of t More...

0 comments like

Nov 24, 2011

Diana (Random Pabulum) rated it:

Open Road Media has re-released multiple Bette Greene novels in the ebook format, and Summer of My German Soldier was one of them. The book was released in 1973 and has been a staple in many required reading curricula for middle and high schools. While I was not forced to read this in middle school, it was one of the recommended books to read, which I did.

Summer of My German Soldier is about Patty Bergen, a young Jewish girl from Jenkinsville, Arkansas, and Anton Reiker, a German p More...

0 comments like

Aug 12, 2009

Josiah rated it:

"A person's got to think, otherwise that person's no better than a trained seal balancing a ball on his nose. If only that seal could think, he'd know he was making a thousand children laugh."

—Patty Bergen, "Summer of My German Soldier", P. 160

"Like the Bible tells us, when a man will lay down his life for a friend, well, then there ain't no greater love in this here world than that."

—Ruth, "Summer of My German Sol More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 03, 2011

06PaigeD rated it:

This book is set around World War 2. A girl named Patrica is living in Jekinsville, Arkansas, when a train full of German soldiers arrives. Everything goes as usual, until one day, the soldiers go to Patty's father's store. Patty helps one of the soldiers check out. His name is Anton. A couple weeks later, Anton escapes from the prison camp. patty helps him, and keeps him in the house above her garage. Patty keeps him safe, and feeds him. Antone misses his family, and decides to leave. It is all More...

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Feb 23, 2011

Linda rated it:

A powerfully disturbing book set in a small, bigoted Arkansas town. Young twelve year old Patty is emotionally abused by both parents and physically abused by her father.

Set apart from others because her family is Jewish, and because she severely lacks stability and warmth, Patty struggles to belong and to fit in. A kind hearted, intelligent person, her only friend is Ruth, the family maid who loves her unquestionably.

When the US government houses German prisoners in her town More...

0 comments like

Aug 19, 2011

Melissa rated it:

2.5 out of 5
Patty Bergen has a secret – a big one!

But her secret could put her life and future in danger, but she is willing to take the risk.

When a group of German POWs are detained at a prison camp in NE Arkansas (based on true historical events), Patty is intrigued by the excitement it has created within her community. But when a few of them are brought to her father’s store to buy hats to protect them from the intense Arkansas sun, Patty learns that they are More...

1 comment like

Sep 26, 2010

Ashley rated it:

I wonder if Bette Greene knew, when Summer was published in 1973, that it would still be relevant in 2010? Summer of My German Soldier tells the story of Patty Bergen, a young Jewish girl growing up in rural Arkansas in World War II. Often the subject of her mother's criticism and her father's violent temper, Patty's only real friend is Ruth, the family's housekeeper. That all changes the summer Patty is twelve, and German POW's are relocated to Patty's hometown.

Patty befriends on More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Feb 05, 2012

Laura rated it:

This book is told in first person and is set during WWII in a small town in Arkansas. Living there is a Jewish girl named Patty Bergen.
All Patty wants is to be accepted by someone other than her family's maid, Ruth. Her father beats her and doesn't understand her, and her mother dissects everything she does and seems to be trying to ruin Patty's life.
The only person who Patty really connects with, besides Ruth, is a German prisoner of war named Anton. Anton has rece More...

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Aug 25, 2011

Violet rated it:

Summer of My German Soldier took some very surprising twists as the pages fluttered through my fingers. It did not take very long to read for a good reason: this is a really good book.

It is the story of an American Jewish girl who befriends a German POW. She has very few people to love in her life; her father mistreats her, and her mother is self-centered and doesn't really care about her. The only one she has is Ruth, their colored hired girl, who is the only one who really loves h More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 01, 2009

Amon rated it:

I found the main character somewhat interesting, her first person narration was pretty well written, I loved Ruth- the maid, she was my favorite character and I think the best developed. The relationship between Patty and Anton seemed a little too much like a 7th grade girls fantasy than something that actually would happen- Anton very poorly developed in my opinion- his motivations, actions, words- not very realistic. The parents did not make any sense, it seems that they should need some reaso More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 27, 2011

Charlynn rated it:

In Summer of My German Soldier, it took a twelve year old Jewish girl and her black nanny to recognize the fact that a person cannot be defined by a label. The book takes place during 1941 in segregated Arkansas where antisemitism feelings, though not as overt, were still lurking underneath all the nice-as-pie Southern pleasantries, and Patty and Ruth were the only people capable of seeing Anton, an escaped Nazi prisoner of war whom they helped, as not the face of their enemy but as the kind, i More...

0 comments like

Dec 01, 2011

Sophia rated it:

This book's rating varies for both me and many other people. If you are forced to read this book, as I was, you most likely did not get the opportunity to enjoy it as much as you should have. This book is a sad love story about a Jewish girl who protects a Nazi POW during WWII. The story opens your eyes to the hardships, yet strong generousity, that people faced and possessed during times of war. When Anton, the German POW, tells Patty that he must leave, I cried. I have personal experiences wit More...

0 comments like

Sep 12, 2010

Alicia rated it:

An interesting story about a young jewish girl who is growing up in the American South (Alabama)during World War II. Her father is physically and emotionally abusive, her mother is emotionally abusive. The one woman who has shown her kindness is the family housekeeper, a black woman. One of the things I liked about this book is that, even though she is abused, the girl has kept a strong spirit and isn't afraid to speak her mind, even if it gets her in trouble.

The girl becomes obsess More...

0 comments like

Jul 20, 2011

Edy rated it:

This is one of my favorite books. It is realistic, moving, and emotion packed. Patty Bergan, the daughter of a successful, yet brutal businessman and a superficial mother, meets a German prisoner of ar when the prisoners come into her father's store to buy hats. Eventually the prisoner escapes and Patty harbors him in an unused garage apartment. When Patty's actions are discovered, she must face her consequences. Although the plot line is simple enough, the novel deals with very sophisticated is More...

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