The Enemy: Detroit, 1954

by Sara Holbrook

Winner, Jane Addams Children's Book Award

A young girl navigates family and middle school dramas amid the prejudices and paranoia of the Cold War era in this “excellent example of historical fiction for middle grade readers” ( School Library Journal )
 
World War II is over, but the threat of communism and the Cold War loom over the United States. In Detroit, Michigan, twelve-year-old Marjorie Campbell struggles with the ups and downs of family life, dealing with her veteran father’s unpredictable outbursts, keeping her mother’s stash of banned library books a secret, and getting along with her new older “brother”—the teenager her family took in after his veteran father’s death.
 
When a new girl from Germany transfers to Marjorie’s class, Marjorie finds herself torn between befriending Inga and pleasing her best friend, Bernadette, by writing in a slam book that spreads rumors about Inga. Marjorie seems to be confronting enemies everywhere—at school, at the library, in her neighborhood, and even in the news. In all this turmoil, Marjorie tries to find her own voice and figure out what is right and who the real enemies actually are.
 
Includes an author’s note and bibliography.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Middle Grade, Friendship, Fiction, Family, Young Adult, Historical

224 pages, Hardcover

First published March 7, 2017

Reviews

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

This wonderful piece of historical fiction is set in Detroit in 1954, a year before I was born. Although I grew up in the rural South, I could still relate to many of the events the author describes here as well as the xenophobia that plagued her school and neighborhood, and dare I say, our nation. As I read the book—and I don’t know how I managed to miss it earlier—I couldn’t help but think about today’s political climate and the hatred and fear that are fomented toward those that are different from the rest of us or who we have learned to call “the enemy.” The book covers a lot of territory and cuts a wide swath in examining how many of the citizens of this country as well as others often give blind allegiance to their leaders and elected officials. If this all sounds familiar, it just be that in some respects we’ve returned to the days of the Cold War, the red scare, and the witch hunt led by Senator Joseph McCarthy in those days. The narrator, twelve-year-old Marjorie Campbell leads a life not far removed from most youngsters in those times. Her father suffers from PTSD as the result of his military service, and many Americans still bear grudges toward the Nazis and Germans after WWII as well as harboring fears about Russians and communism. Marjorie is no exception to this rule, but a small crack in her veneer occurs when her teacher assigns her to befriend a new student. Inga Scholtz may have recently arrived from Canada, but it is clear that her origins were in Germany. Marjorie is torn between acting kindly to the girl and staying in the good graces of her best friend, Bernadette Ferguson. Unfortunately, often she shuns Inga because the rest of her classmates are, as they belittle Inga and make fun of her culture and clothing. Things escalate as Bernadette suggests that the girls write in a slam book through which they will ask and answer questions about Inga. Although this might seem to be a trivial matter, it is intended to be cruel and to align the girls even further against the young German girl. Eventually Marjorie does the right thing, but it takes almost the entire book before she does so, and seeing her father’s willingness to move past the wounds of the war and his awareness that the men on the other side of the conflict were humans just like him, caught up in a war machine. I thoroughly enjoyed this exploration of an ethical dilemma from the aisles of a typical American classroom as well as the plotlines about book banning and her mother’s college education, which seemed somehow to set her apart from others—and not in a good way. While it might seem that we’ve come a long, long way, baby, in other respects, we seem to be going backward in time. If this story seems personal, in many ways it is as the author based some of the characters and experiences on those of her own family. Like many, I’ve always enjoyed Sara Holbrook’s poetry so I am delighted to see her first novel. There are many passages that made me laugh as well as some that made me wince, and others that left me troubled as I pondered how I might have behaved if I had been in Marjorie’s shoes. While this novel covers territory not usually explored in books for young readers, it does so through a narrator with whom most of them can relate. I appreciated the inclusion of complex characters and subtle references to the economic differences among the families in Marjorie's neighborhood as well as the examination of life after a war or a conflict ends.

[Kimbra Power · Rating 5 out of 5]

Where has Sara Holbrook been hiding her talent for fiction all these years?
I've only known her as a poet, and an outspoken and wonderful one at that, so to pick up her brand new novel and finish it in one setting has blown me away; what a page turner.
The book has an easily accessible lead character, Marjorie, who is struggling with her surroundings, her family and her friendships. Marjorie is growing up in turbulent 1950's America, and battles prejudice in its many guises.
The book, although set 60 years ago, is EERILY relevant today in, I mean seriously-references to the Orwell classic 1984, talk of taking down the enemy and the toxic mentality of fear permeate as a theme, then, and now.
I can easily see this novel being used as a reference book for this turbulent period in time, the 1950's, and imagine it will be popular as a classroom text used in book groups from 5th grade and up.
Read this book today.

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Marjorie lives in Detroit in the 1950s, a decade that has been depicted as placid and "normal"--when the wars were over and America was Great, but M's life is pretty full of confusing things. Her best friend is pulling all kinds of stunts, her mom is hiding "subversive" books under the bed, and there seem to be enemies everywhere. Sara Holbrook's first novel, based on her own experiences as a young girl in a world as complex as the one we have today. Terrific!

[Ally · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this book. It wasn't my favorite because they would flashback and flash forward a lot which made it somewhat confusing to read. Also the timeline was good and wasn't unrealistic.

[Ella_C1 · Rating 4 out of 5]

A new girl moves to a new town and goes to school with the protagonist. But it is not an average new girl this new girl has a secret. Margorie ( the protagonist) happens to find out the secret. With two friendships on the line Margorie is having a hard time figuring out who the enemy is. The theme of this book is that the best kind of friendship is the kind of friendship that makes you happy and doesnt make others miserable. This was a Battle Of The Books book. This book was based a few years after WWII. This book would appeal to readers who like realistic fiction, or books about friendship.

[Jocelyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed The Enemy by Sara Holbrook. I wasn't sure where it was going because there were several directions it could have taken, but it ended up being a pleasant little story. It's set in the mid '50's in Detroit. Majorie is about 12 and lives with her parents and younger sister. Her father was a WWII vet who came home burdened with the after-effects, both physical and emotional, of war.

Her mother is intelligent and progressive. McCarthyism was going strong at the time and the library planned to destroy many wonderful banned books. Along with a few like-minded women, she and Majorie saved a large box of books and hid them. It was a dangerous thing to do at the time.

Another issue Marjorie struggles with is the new girl in class, Inga, and her best friend, Bernadette. Bernadette is one of those girls that all the others take the lead from, and she doesn't like Inga who is from Germany. Majorie likes Inga and doesn't want to lose the security of being in Bernadette's good graces.

Enjoy!

[Dotty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Transported to another time
Familiar but different, my story but another's story
Nancy Drew, bomb drills, frenemies
Underachieving mothers and kind but struggling fathers
Wandering and wondering down memory lane
With side trails that now beckon to explore
McCarthy witch hunt, Red scare, bomb building
Fear of the other...a festering wound breeding hate and cruelty
When will we ever learn?
--------------------------
Ok, Sara Holbrook, haven't attempted much poetry of late, but how could I not respond to a poet's novel without at least trying. Thank you for the captivating characters and story, engaging, thought provoking quandaries! "The Enemy" was time travel at it's best and yet reflects our current lack of ability to step outside of fear and our ignorance of history that could so help us understand the present.

This book will be in my next book talk and I'll be telling my students I want to give your book a 6 star rating! And then I want to find people to read with and talk about this book. I'll insist this book be on our middle school Book Madness for next school year.

[Gary Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

From her “Chicks Up Front” days to a recent piece on how one of her poems was botched by a Texas standardized test, Sara Holbrook has always been in the right place, saying what needs to be said. It’s no surprise that her first novel for young readers, The Enemy: Detroit 1954, is perfectly in sync with our troubled times.

Holbrook’s main character Marjorie Campbell is twelve years old as the atrocities of World War II are still etched in the minds of Americans, although children of her age have no direct memories of them. Many are also preoccupied with the Cold War fears of creeping Communism. For Marjorie and other children, these perceptions are playing out for real in their Detroit neighborhood when books deemed subversive (1984, The Grapes of Wrath) are removed from library shelves, and newcomers are treated with suspicion. When Marjorie is assigned to share a desk with the just-arrived Inga, she is torn between her instinct to be friendly and her classmates’ intentions to be unwelcoming.

Holbrook respects her readers by presenting the complexity of Marjorie’s situation. Members of her family and community have been directly affected by the war, and they harbor negative attitudes toward Germans and DPs (displaced persons). Others are concerned with over-reaching attempts to limit freedoms in the name of safeguarding against Communism. Marjorie takes it all in, and then relies on her heart to make decisions about how she will navigate her neighborhood and her world.

Marjorie’s voice in The Enemy is charmingly innocent, smart, and vulnerable. Here is her description of one of the local librarians: “Mrs. Pearson has her arms crossed tightly, the way she always does. Crossed arms are as natural to her as breathing. It makes me wonder how she opens a car door or flushes a toilet. I imagine she was born with her arms crossed, telling the doctor to keep it down as soon as she opened her eyes.” Sara Holbrook definitely knows how kids think and speak.

Today’s middle school and high school students are well aware of what is going on around them. They see the protests and hear the inflammatory rhetoric. Reading The Enemy: Detroit 1954 in a time when our government is focused on creating a classes of “others” through harsh characterizations and targeted immigration policies will give adolescents a context for processing their own roles in today’s swirling events, and considering whether “the enemy” is outsiders or dark impulses closer to home.

Cross-posted in slightly different form on my What's Not Wrong? blog

[AZ · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Enemy is a book about life for people roughly ten years after World War II, during the Cold War. Although it's been almost a decade, the country is still reeling from the aftereffects of the war, and there's the new threat of communism and Russian spies looming on the horizon. When Marjorie Campbell's class gets a new student from Germany, she isn't sure what to do. One one hand, Inga intrigues and charms her; on the other hand, her best friend, Bernadette, immediately dislikes the new girl and writes a slam book spreading rumors with Inga at the core.
The Enemy accurately portrays the struggle to follow the crowd or to stick up for a lone individual. Although everyone parrots the phrase "do what's right, not what's easy," in reality, this is much harder. Bernadette has been Marjorie's friend for years, and Marjorie knows that her reputation could be torn to shreds within hours if she doesn't do what Bernadette says. Inga, in Bernadette's eyes, shouldn't be able to live in America since she's from Germany. It's not hard to sympathize with the country's overall view on Germans, what with the recent war. Marjorie herself harbored ill feelings towards the country and its people. Although she changes her opinions upon spending time with Inga, her classmates aren't willing to get to know the foreign girl, purely because of their fathers' stories about Nazis in Germany. Because of this prejudice, Inga is shunned and ridiculed by her classmates, as is anyone who associates with her.
Marjorie may be perceived as idiotic for not helping someone obviously in need of help, but she's really not. Today, we have views, ignorant as they may be, about different people. Arabs are terrorists, Africans are poor, Russians are drunks, the British enjoy drinking tea, etc. Not all Africans live in tribal villages and hunt antelope with spears, yet most people seem to have that image in mind when Africans are mentioned. Back in the mid 20th century, all Germans were thought to be Nazis that devotedly worshipped Hitler. That image would stop people from reaching out to people that even seemed German, for fear that they'd be called Nazi sympathizers. They may say that "sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me," but everyone knows that's not true. Words can hurt if the one wielding them knows where to aim. Nobody wants to be the target of taunts and rumors, so they mostly just do what everyone else does. During the majority of the book, Marjorie does exactly that, and nobody can really blame her. All she's doing is preserving her image, and we all know that having a good image, no matter what everyone else says, is vital to success.

[Mary Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this is the first children's/YA book I've read that's set during the Cold War. Through lots of specific details, Holbrook gives the reader a good feel for the time and the place (Detroit).

The scary thing is, this is a story for today -- racism, fear of immigrants, threat of nuclear annihilation (without the air raid sirens...so far), bullies, PTSD. But it is also a story filled with hope. When Marjorie's father welcomes a Inga's father, a German immigrant, into his home to compare war stories, it gives her the courage to stand up to her neighbor/friend/the main bully and do the right thing for Inga.

[Shira · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yass I think my grandmother grew up in Detroit in this time period also in the book it mentions places I know like eleven mile and Coolidge and Woodward and in the authors note thing it mentions she grew up near twelve mile AND SHE MENTIONS OAK PARK HELLO DATS WHERE I LIIVVVEEEE (also it mentions that Oak Pakr was very hebrew speaking. It and Southfield do happen to be the main thriving Jewish community here)

[Nola · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was pretty good. I really liked the main characters, Marjorie and Inga. I wish the ending had wrapped up the story a little more, but I still liked it. I liked how Marjorie became more confident throughout the book, and how her relationship with Inga and Frank changed from the beginning.

[Andrea Grieser · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book worked well for me on many levels.

First, I liked the author's style very much. It did not talk down to the target reader's age (middle school years, most likely) nor were there gimmicky aspects to the writing that can sometimes be found in some modern YA fiction (lame jokes, stupid adults, trying too hard to sound like today's sitcom teens, etc.).

Second, a straight read of the story was informative and interesting. The author does a nice job recreating the Cold War era, where young people had real fears about the bomb being dropped on them thanks to duck-and-cover drills, about spies (the Rosenbergs were executed in 1953 so was still a fresh news story), and about our government - 1954 is the tail end if McCarthyism. Sixth-grade Marjorie's fears and suspicions about the probable spy watching her and Bernadette play in the snow rang true - as did her amazement that none of the adults took it seriously. The time period also somewhat explains the children's cruelty to Inga - after all, she was a child of the "enemy".

But anybody who was ever a 12-year-old girl also can relate to the cruelty on another level - better to be the one on the good side of the bully lest they become the bullied. I had forgotten about slam books until I read about it here - they were around well past the 1950s. I hope modern teens can recognize this as the precursor to cyber bullying. Marjorie's angst at knowing it was wrong yet being conflicted about not writing in it is something many young people unfortunately experience, and her ultimate decision is a good example for our modern teens today. I also like the example her parents show her. Her mother is willing to risk a lot for a cause she believes in, saving banned library books. Her father, who at first appears to be a man of his time, also is a good person, engaging with Inga's father as two ex-soldiers who have much in common by being in a terrible war; being on opposite sides is no longer as important as it once was.

Lastly, while the book is great as historical fiction, its themes are also relevant to today's world that can be very confusing to young people (and older ones!). Children can still be very cruel to each other and sadly prejudice of many types is still alive and well. Adults don't seem to be playing well together in the political world which also must be confusing for young adults. I think this book can give today's children hope that as confusing as the modern age can seem at times, perhaps by understanding that this is not the first time in history that we've had challenges, maybe we can learn something from it and we can make the world better.

Really enjoyed reading this book and highly recommend it to our middle school aged children (maybe even late elementary school, too).

[Cindy Mitchell *Kiss the Book* · Rating 3 out of 5]

Holbrook, Sara The Enemy, 243 pages. Highlights (Calkins Creek), 2017. $18. Language: G (swear count 0); Mature Content: PG; Violence: PG.

It’s 1954 in Detroit, Michigan. Cold-war McCarthyism has a grip on the city and twelve-year-old Marjorie doesn’t know what to think. What’s a Nazi? What’s a Commie? Who is our enemy? Where are they hiding? Why are books being pulled from the library shelves? Her father served in World War II and now works for Chrysler Corporation. Her mother went to college during the war and now stays at home to take care of Marjorie and her sister. Then there is Frank, the teenager who comes to live with them after his father, also a veteran, dies of “unnatural causes.” Life is complicated enough before the arrival of the new immigrant family in the neighborhood. Her classmates make fun of the new girl with her different hair, different clothes, and different accent. Through it all, Marjorie finds the courage to be a true friend and stand up for what she believes is right.

Drawing on personal experience, author Sara Holbrook creates a work of historical fiction that is still relevant today. At times a bit slow, the book tries to capture the feeling of paranoia that spread across American society as the Soviet Union began to rise as a global power. The reader can sense Marjorie’s curiosity and confusion as she tries to understand why some families reject cultures and religions that other families embrace. The dilemma of inclusion versus exclusion as it related to European immigrants in the 1950’s parallels the current political debates about immigrants from Middle Eastern countries. Holbrook also manages to bring in the tween girl experience about true friends, family secrets, and crushes on boys that even the modern reader can relate to.

EL, MS – OPTIONAL. LMA, future elementary school teacher
http://kissthebook.blogspot.com/2018/...

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book! Set in the 1950s and told through the lens of a middle school girl. Marjorie is dealing with some big issues -- the Cold War, McCarthyism, banned library books, her father's PTSD, mean girls with slam books, a new student from Germany, and a new older brother living in the basement her family took in when he was orphaned. My favorite character was her strong mother who went to college in an era when many women did not and when jobs for women were listed separately in the classified section.

From page 25:
"My mother's a college graduate.
It's true.
It happened during the war because her daddy didn't want her hands turning dirty in a factory helping the war effort, so he sent her off to a safe place with ivy all over it. She never lies about going to college, but she doesn't bring it up either. Probably because, like Dad says, it doesn't help her do the dishes any better than the next woman. It's almost a family secret, like a birthmark or my grandpap's horse-thieving uncle who had his name cut out of the family Bible. Something we don't talk about."

And I loved her mother's commentary on the importance of books!
From pages 188-189:
"She talks fast. 'You asked me why I went to college and the answer is because Grandpa Henry told me to go. But you didn't ask me what I learned there. I learned this: Books, like the books upstairs, they stretch your brain, so there's enough room for lots of ideas: good ideas, bad ideas, ideas different than the ideas you grow up with. From those ideas you can make your own ideas, different ideas. Different is a good way to be. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. When people try too hard to be the same, that's when the shooting starts."

This book is on the 2018-2019 Maine Student Book Award list and we have it in our Learning Commons collection thanks to Junior Library Guild.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Okay, four and a half stars, really. I had a few minor quibbles. For example, Ferguson is not, in my experience, an Irish name. It's Scotttish. But Bernadette Ferguson and her mother are absolutely believable characters--bullies, both, and very punctilious.

12-year-old Marjorie, the main character, is best friends with Bernadette. So she worries when she's stuck sitting next to the new girl, Inga, from Canada. Inga is a German refugee, and many in Detroit, including Marjorie's father, still bear the scars of the war. What's more, the red scare is in full swing. It doesn't take long for Bernadette to start plotting against the new girl, and she expects Marjorie to join in. But Marjorie starts to realize that, German or no, she likes and respects Inga.

Marjorie is a very real young girl, and I loved the family relationships and the difficult early adolescent friendships. Marjorie's mom is a real heroine!

Summing up, this is very well crafted historical fiction that will also appeal to fans of realistic fiction and family stories. There's drama and tension and humor and some very positive messages that arise naturally from the story. And the characters are memorable. I also appreciated the author's note explaining her childhood in Detroit and the similarities and differences from the novel. Well done.

[Dawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Set in 1954, this compelling historical novel tells the story of a young girl’s struggles and triumphs in the aftermath of World War II. The war is over, but the threat of communism and the Cold War loom over the United States. In Detroit, Michigan, twelve-year-old Marjorie Campbell struggles with the ups and downs of family life, dealing with her veteran father’s unpredictable outbursts, keeping her mother’s stash of banned library books a secret, and getting along with her new older “brother,” the teenager her family took in after his veteran father’s death. When a new girl from Germany transfers to Marjorie’s class, Marjorie finds herself torn between befriending Inga and pleasing her best friend, Bernadette, by writing in a slam book that spreads rumors about Inga. Marjorie seems to be confronting enemies everywhere—at school, at the library, in her neighborhood, and even in the news. In all this turmoil, Marjorie tries to find her own voice and figure out what is right and who the real enemies actually are."

Another powerful reminder for life in these times -- how do we live with the choices that are before us? How do we live confronting our enemies or our supposed enemies? What do we do when family members disagree? What about our assumptions and prejudices towards others?

This was not a hard read, but it is an important read.

[Valerie McEnroe · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been reading a lot of books about the Cold War lately and this is one to read if you have an interest. It describes the anti-German sentiment that permeated American culture in the 50s and 60s. There was much less tolerance for cultural differences back then and Detroit was one of the melting pot cities. This book is based loosely on the author's own experiences growing up in Detroit.

Marjorie is very aware of the anti-Nazi/anti-Communist atmosphere around her. Communists are called Commies and immigrants are called DPs for displaced persons. WW2 is still fresh in people's minds and they have no tolerance for Germans. When a new German girl named Inga joins her class and she is instructed to share her desk since there are no others, Marjorie is faced with a moral dilemma. She wants to be nice to Inga and help her learn to read English, but she knows it will jeopardize her friendship with the popular, but intolerant, Bernadette.

Her father, a retired military man, who works for a company with ties to the military, is socially aware of the importance to not appear to be a Communist sympathizer. So it's interesting that at the end of the book he invites Inga's father over to their house to talk about the war. In the end, Marjorie stands up to Bernadette. Her father's message is that war is bad, not people, so you must forgive and forget.

[Erikka · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had the honor of meeting Sara Holbrook at the Ohioana Festival in Columbus this spring. She was a delight and this book really caught my eye. There isn't a lot of middle grade Cold War fiction, so I wanted to check it out. I'm really glad I did. Marjorie is a fun MC. She learns to accept others even when they are decidedly different from you. More importantly, she learns to stand up for what's right even if it's unpopular. I think that, even though this is historical fiction, there are many applicable lessons for today's kids. Also, a nagging aggravation: why are middle grade books filled with good parents, but in YA your hard-pressed to find enough to make a library social media post for mother's/father's day?? Do parents randomly get worse as soon as their kids become teens? Or, and this just came to mind, are YA parents awful bc teens have a shifting view of their parents? At Marjorie's age, she still recognizes their value and their intelligence. Maybe at 16, she would begin to think they are nothing more than stupid burdens who limit her horizons. Maybe that's why you see so many good parent relations in adult fiction--adults have shifted the pendulum back to respect for their parents. Hmm. Worth thinking on.

[Maryc · Rating 3 out of 5]

Surprisingly good little book (for kids) which is uncomfortable in its timliness under the Trump administration. It's a story about friendships and loyalty and being nice, couched in the 1950's era of McCarthyism, suspicions of neighbors, and threats of nuclear annihilation. There is discussion of war and post-war feelings toward those who were once deemed the enemy. Also, it touches on book banning-a particularly loathsome activity, and good to highlight. I should add, that the author does a nice job of recreating that era-though it is a bit before my time, much of it rang true either for me or from stories from my mom. She also touched on the feelings between different groups -whether immigrants or their descendants based on their nationalities, as well as between people of different religions. There was a little touch on sexism but there is no discussion of race (though this takes place in Detroit), but this latter is explained by the author in the afterward-due to the segregation in that city.

[Joan Arbogast · Rating 5 out of 5]

Holbrook does a wonderful job of placing the reader in the atmosphere of The Cold War. Fear is rampant. Suspicion abounds. Prejudice predicts judgement. I love the mantra - "Lead, follow, or get out of the way." It was true for twelve-year-old Marjorie's father during the war, and true for Marjorie as she decides whether to befriend the new girl in her class, who is clearly a German refugee. Inga. So many things to consider. Her father, a WWII veteran who was lucky enough to make it home but could possibly lose his job if associating with Nazi sympathizers. Frank, the teen who lives with the Campbells, who hates all Germans. Her mother, who hides books deemed subversive from the library in their own house, something that could get her jailed if found. Her best friend, Bernadette, who sees all Germans as Nazis. With all the fears and prejudices swirling today, this middle grade novel couldn't be more timely. Kudos to Holbrook for tackling this issue with finesse. Another fine book published by Calkins Creek under the guidance of editor, Carolyn Yoder!

[Naomi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book in a day, mostly because I was sick in bed and had time, but it was good, so I didn't get a ton of sleeping done. I was not familiar with this author but she has got some depth to her I am appreciating. I am going to scout out some of her other books as well. Definitely do read the final Author's Note, which make you appreciate her story even more. I am not very familiar with this time period but have read some about the war...and the quotable I will be writing down in my Keepers book is also from the Author's Note, the "What I have learned from all this..."
Oh, and I also came across this book because it was part of the reading challenge at my 8th grade daughter's school. She hasn't read it yet but she will say, I think, that it reminds her of Night Divided, Number the Stars or a Gratz book. History but in the moment feelings and decisions and responses. She will like it.

[Drew Woodruff · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Enemy by Sara Holbrook gave me different thoughts on what the main plot was and confused me, but because of that it I was captivated and wanted to unravel the plot. The Enemy is a book about relationships and doing the right thing even if it is difficult. The Enemy is filled with suspense and keeps the reader absorbed and wondering who is who and if anyone will find out their secrets. It also makes the reader wonder if Marjorie will make the right choice and stick up for her friend or join Bernadette and her friends to judge Inga harshly and try to change who she is. Marjorie is a very smart girl but the view on women in that day tries to suppress her ideas, but that does not discourage her to have her own view on the world. Bernadette seems to be a good friend at the beginning of the book, but she clearly goes into the wrong direction and eventually Marjorie sees that. Overall it is a very good book and kept me guessing all the way towards the end.

[Erin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought I knew where this story was headed, and found it engaging but predictable. Until the plot gently veered off-course and I found myself pleasantly surprised by the direction it had taken. Marjorie is super average, nothing special, just your everyday tween/teen dealing with friends, bullies, teachers, and family struggles. But lightly layered on top of all that typical stuff is her father's PTSD, a new girl in school who may (or may not) be an (ex)Nazi, Communist threats at her local library, a young man who comes to live with her family because his father committed suicide, and underlying all this is the never-entirely-straightly-asked-question about what it means to be American.

I wish the library plot thread didn't fade into the background, but other than that, I am a big fan of this story.

[Cindy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating read for older elementary or middle school students. This book is set in Detroit in 1954. The main character is a 5th grade girl who has much to be worried about. Besides the usual friendship troubles, she is worried about spies or communists living in her neighborhood. She deals with her father's PTSD after he returned from WWII and books being banned because they are thought to be encouraging communism. While this is a work of fiction, the book is modeled after the author's life as a child growing up in that era. I think it would work well as a read-a-loud or for parents to read it with their child, as there are many things to discuss. The book 1984 by George Orwell, is referenced in the book as well as issues of prejudice.

[Patti Sabik · Rating 4 out of 5]

Detroit in the 1950s is a confusing place for Marjorie. Her dad is afraid of losing his job at Chrysler if her college-educated mom keeps on with her "subversive" thinking, the boy in the basement is acting weird, and now she has to share her desk with the new girl Inga. A quiet book that discusses the 1950s in a very real way but holds relevance that crosses many boundaries. Marjorie's interactions with her classmates and the new girl Inga could easily be set in the today's controversial immigration climate. The PTSD experienced by Marjorie's father is all too real and the scene at the end with Inga's dad is extremely touching. All-together, a sweet and moving book with many threads to pull.

[Mary Moreno · Rating 5 out of 5]

I could not put this book down. Marjorie is in a crowded 6th grade with kids of various European descent, but when blond Inga moves in from “Canada,” the tough popular girl, who is Marjorie’s best friend, immediately calls her out as a Nazi. Meanwhile, Marjorie’s mom is struggling though the stifling attitudes toward women and particularly chafing at McCarthyism directed at library books. What if some smuggled books are found out? Can Marjorie stand up to Bernadette and make friends with Inga? What should we do about our enemies once the war is over? Answers come from sometimes surprising places in this fast paced, insightful story.

[Abby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really inhabits Marjorie's world, contains some language and behavior we would not accept in 2018 (chastising women for going to college/thinking, public librarians censoring collections voluntarily) but also others that are sadly unchanged and unchallenged (criticism of displaced immigrants), leaves out half the city of Detroit (brief mention of the city's racial makeup and redlining to explain segregation). Not sure how many 12-year olds would pick this title up (or stay with it) but it had an interesting amount of edge--I was always thinking it was going to veer into really deep water.

[Cathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

About my hometown

I take this as a great book for later elementary students or middle school. I now realize I went to high school with Sara and Monica (Inga loosely based on her). Good for discussions about how growing up post-war was. These would be their grandparents and great grandparents time. And way to deal with much of the prejudice that continues to exist today. Prejudice is based on ignorance and this book speaks to that well.

[Rachel Rooney · Rating 4 out of 5]

A 2019-2020 Missouri Truman Readers Award preliminary nominee (grades 6-8).

Marjorie Campbell lives with her family in suburban Detroit in 1954. Her father is a WWII veteran who struggles with odd outbursts, her mom might be involved in subversive activities, and there is a new girl in school who says she is from Canada but seems suspiciously German.

This was pretty good. It is an easy read but has a fair amount going on.