The absorbing coming-of-age autobiography of a young American girl and her family stranded as enemy aliens in Berlin, the headquarters of Nazi Germany, during WWII.

This compelling story—sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes terrifying—immerses readers in a child’s view of life in Nazi Germany, including the daily horrors of war. It also shows the strain that assimilation into a new place can have on a young immigrant child.

    In 1939 when Eleanor Garner was nine years old, her German parents decided to leave Philadelphia with their American born children and return to Germany where the father had accepted a job offer. War broke out while they were crossing the Atlantic; they arrived in Berlin as enemy aliens and could not return to the United States.

    Eleanor, a thoughtful and artistic child, had difficulty conforming to the rigid German school system. In addition, her own parents were very strict, but she worked hard to fit in and keep up her grades. Eleanor and her older brother Frank joined Hitler’s Youth at school despite objections from their mother. Eleanor’s new friends had joined, and she did not want to be left out. While she worked to maintain her American identity, she felt herself pulled into the turbulent life roiling around her. She fervently hoped for an Allied victory, yet she and her family had to survive the Allied bombings that shattered her neighborhood. Though they faced separations, bombings, hunger, and the terrors of Soviet occupation, the family steadfastly remained loyal to each other and to preserving order in their lives. Through all the hardships, they managed to survive the war.