Review: War Games
War Games: A Novel of 1936 Berlin
by Alan Gratz
Scholastic Press, 2025
Category: Middle Grade
Reviewer: Merle Eisman Carrus
A fast paced action novel for middle school readers, War Games is a history lesson about the 1936 Olympic Games and the terror of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party. Author Alan Gratz interweaves real people and events from the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin with fictional characters who help round out the suspenseful story.
Evie Harris has won a seat on the US Olympic team. It is the start to her dream come true, to win gold and become a movie actress. She is hoping to make enough money to give her family a new start after being forced to leave Oklahoma during the Dust Bowl and move to California.
On the surface everything looks magical. Berlin is clean and new, the stadium is brightly lit and alive with the excitement of the teams competing. Black American, Jesse Owens, wins gold and German Jewish fencer, Helen Mayer, competes... but is it all just for show? Behind the scenes Evie’s new friend Heinz, a Honorary Youth Services Host, shows her the darker side of Germany and how they are trying to fool the world about their intentions to go to war again with Europe and create a master Aryan race.
Evie has to decide if she is comfortable just thinking of herself, winning gold, or getting involved in a scheme to steal Nazi gold. As she learns more about how Jewish people and others are being treated by the Nazis, Evie realizes that even if she and her family are poor in America they are at least not being threatened with death. This is a story that shows the history of Hitler and the Nazi party and how one young girl learned a lesson in friendship and helping others.
This is not a book about Jewish people directly. They are a part of the larger story of what was happening in Germany. The story of how they were targeted and how families had to leave to go into hiding. The Jewish content is authentic and is integral to the story. The story also explains how people of color, gay people, and those of mixed race were targeted as well.
Evie Harris has won a seat on the US Olympic team. It is the start to her dream come true, to win gold and become a movie actress. She is hoping to make enough money to give her family a new start after being forced to leave Oklahoma during the Dust Bowl and move to California.
On the surface everything looks magical. Berlin is clean and new, the stadium is brightly lit and alive with the excitement of the teams competing. Black American, Jesse Owens, wins gold and German Jewish fencer, Helen Mayer, competes... but is it all just for show? Behind the scenes Evie’s new friend Heinz, a Honorary Youth Services Host, shows her the darker side of Germany and how they are trying to fool the world about their intentions to go to war again with Europe and create a master Aryan race.
Evie has to decide if she is comfortable just thinking of herself, winning gold, or getting involved in a scheme to steal Nazi gold. As she learns more about how Jewish people and others are being treated by the Nazis, Evie realizes that even if she and her family are poor in America they are at least not being threatened with death. This is a story that shows the history of Hitler and the Nazi party and how one young girl learned a lesson in friendship and helping others.
This is not a book about Jewish people directly. They are a part of the larger story of what was happening in Germany. The story of how they were targeted and how families had to leave to go into hiding. The Jewish content is authentic and is integral to the story. The story also explains how people of color, gay people, and those of mixed race were targeted as well.
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Reviewer Merle Eisman Carrus resides in New Hampshire and writes book reviews for the NH Jewish Reporter newspaper. and other publications. She is a graduate of Emerson College and received her Masters of Jewish Studies from Hebrew College. She leads books discussion groups and author interviews. She blogs her book reviews at biteofthebookworm.blogspot.com.
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