The Boy Who Dared
Susan Campbell Bartoletti
Summary
The Boy Who Dared is a story about Helmuth Guddat Hübener who lives in Hamburg, Germany during World War Two. Helmuth does not like or agree with all the laws being passed in Germany. He is mad at the government because they are making these laws that forbid him from listening to a radio station that's not German, reading a book that's not German, or buying from a Jewish person. Helmuth wants to speak out about the unfairness, but he finds out something that not many other people in Germany know. He has been listening to the British radio station and is hearing all the things that German government isn't telling them. But does he dare speak out about all this. Read The Boy Who Dared and find out what happend.
Theme
I think the message the story is trying to send to people is that you should speak out about what you believe in. Helmuth doesn't think the laws are fair so he stand up for what he believed him and made himself noticed. It's stories like this that you look back on and think that they were brave for doing that, but if you don't agree with something you should tell them how you feel in a peaceful way. Helmuth didn't do anything violent but still got noticed.
Historical Information
The Boy Who Dared is based on a true story of a Hitler Youth. Helmuth was a prisoner or the Plötzensee prison. He and nearly 2,200 men and women had faced the executioner there between 1940 and 1945. Many of the other victims had done things similar to Helmuth because they also didn't agree with the laws and wanted more human rights. According to the author "Helmuth Hübener was a real person and his character is based on extensive research — all filtered through her imagination in order to create a dramatic meditation of what Helmuth, his family, and friends lived through." The picture to the left is a memorial in the execution chamber of Plötzensee prison.
Book Source
Bartoletti, Susan Campbell. The Boy Who Dared. New York, New York: Scholastic, 2008. Print.