Seventeen-year-old Erich is a prisoner of war working at a northern Alberta logging camp. Twelve-year-old Max goes to school-reluctantly-in the nearby town. The two would be unlikely friends, except that neither has anyone else to turn to. At the height of World War II, nobody wants to befriend a German. It doesn't matter that Erich was forced into the military by his father, or that Max was proudly born in Canada. They are both easy targets for the locals' grief and anger against the Nazis. The other prisoners are no more welcoming, distrustful of Erich's perfect English and his dislike for Nazism. Still, when a series of accidents shake the logging camp, they pressure Erich to question the Canadians and find the saboteur-even if his questions get him into trouble. Caught between angry prisoners and suspicious captors, Erich is afraid to take any action at all. It is only when Max's schoolyard tormentors cross a dangerous line that Erich realizes that his real loyalties lie not with a regime or a country, but with his friend.

 

This book is the winner of numerous awards. It was recognised by the Best Books for Kids & Teens. It was recognised in the Historical Fiction category by the Geoffrey Bilson Award. It also was recognised by the Iode Violet Downey Book Award. It was recognised in the Red Maple Award category by the Ontario Library Association Forest of Reading Awards.

This book has been graded for interest at 12-16 years.

There are 288 pages in this book. This book was published 2015 by Pajama Press .

Karen Bass is a multi-award-winning author of novels for young adult readers. Graffiti Knight won the CLA Young Adult Book Award, the Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction for Young People, the R. Ross Annett Award for Children's Literature, and the CAA Exporting Alberta Award. Formerly the library manager in Hythe, Alberta, Karen now lives and writes in Hamilton, Ontario.