Summer of My German Soldier, written by Bette Greene, is a very unusual, suspenseful and moving novel. I enjoyed this book tremendously and have to struggle to think of things I disliked about it.

To begin with, I really liked the different setting for a World War II POW camp. Most prison camps you read about were for Allied prisoners and Jews in Europe. This camp was located in the United States in a little town in Arkansas, and the prisoners were German.

Another interesting twist was the escape story. Usually we read about the escape of Jews from terrible concentration camps. This time the story is about a young German soldier named Anton Reiker, who escapes from an American prison camp. To top it all off, his escape is aided by a twelve-year-old Jewish girl named Patty Bergen.

The part I liked best was the friendship between Anton, Patty, and Ruth, the Bergen's black housekeeper. They don't just see each other as Nazi, Jew or black. They see each other as real people with some very wonderful qualities, and love each other for what they are and not for what people label them.

Summer of My German Soldier is a book I would recommend to everyone. It gives you a whole new point of view about people, especially Germans, Jews and Americans. It is important for us to realize that we can't classify people as good or bad because of their nationality, race, or religion. There are good Germans, Jews and Americans, and there are bad ones too. n