A Night Divided by Jennifer Nielsen

 The day before the Berlin Wall goes up, Gerta's father takes a trip to West Geramy with Gerta's younger brother.  The wall ends up separating father and mother, brother and sister. Once the wall is up, East Germany exercises great control over the citizens, watching their every move and controling their opportunities to get ahead. At first Gerta thinks her dad will be able to return, but as time goes on, she begins to feel that they only way for her family to be reunited is to find some way to escape to the West. Together with her brother Fritz, Gerta undertakes a daring and desparate plan that will either lead them to freedom, or mean their death.

It is interesting for me to read books about the Berlin Wall because I remember when it was up and I remember when it came down.  This is a good introduction to what life might have been like in East Germany.  Gerta is a sympathetic character and the conditions Nielsen portrays are probably pretty authentic.  That said, I found it a little difficult to get through the book.  I thought the pacing was a little off.  It dragged in the middle, and Nielsen is not able to do what a lot of great historical fiction authors manage, that is finding grains of humor in the sea of trial.  If Nielsen could have added just a little bit of humor to releave the tension of the plot, it would have helped the pacing.  That said, this is a good introduction to the cold war and the separation of Berlin and I won't hesitate to recommend it to young (or older) historical fiction readers. (336 p. 2015)