After the Train

by Gloria Whelan

Peter Liebig can't wait for summer. He's tired of classrooms, teachers, and the endless lectures about the horrible Nazis. The war has been over for ten years, and besides, his town of Rolfen, West Germany, has moved on nicely. Despite its bombed-out church, it looks just as calm and pretty as ever. There is money to be made at the beach, and there are whole days to spend with Father at his job. And, of course, there's soccer. Plenty for a thirteen-year-old boy to look forward to.

But when Peter stumbles across a letter he was never meant to see, he unravels a troubling secret. Soon he questions everything—the town's peaceful nature, his parents' stories about the war, and his own sense of belonging.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Holocaust, Young Adult, Fiction, World War II, Childrens, Historical

160 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Gloria Whelan is the best-selling author of many novels for young readers, including Homeless Bird, winner of the National Book Award; Fruitlands: Louisa May Alcott Made Perfect; Angel on the Square and its companion, The Impossible Journey; Once on This Island, winner of the Great Lakes Book Award; Farewell to the Island; and Return to the Island. She lives with her husband, Joseph, in the woods of northern Michigan.

Reviews

[Wendy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Plodding, didactic, totally phoned-in.

[Andi M. · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good book told from an interesting perspective. This is the first children's book I've read that deals with the "inheritance" of the Holocaust. That is, how the generation following the atrocity inherits that burden. Told from the perspective of a German child that's really sick of being told he and all other Germans are at fault for what happened--his life soon unravels into a mystery he never expected. Kind of a monotonous tone to the book, but a worthwhile read overall.

[Andrea Cox · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an enjoyable book. The author was creative in her delivery, which brought a unique quality to the story. Kids from twelve to fifteen will probably like this book, and it will give them a fresh perspective on what life might have been like for Jews following WWII.

I was not compensated for my honest review.

[Alison · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although "After the Train" was a slow read at first, it became very interesting when the main character, Peter, discovered that he was not the child of the people that he thought were his parents his entire life. He discovers that his mother bravely saved him when he was to be sent to a concentration camp when he was younger. Although he was raised Catholic, Peter, decides that he wants to learn more about being Jewish since this is what his real mother was. The story follows Peter through the hardships of realizing that he was adopted and seeing how the Jews in his small town were still facing discrimination even after the fall of Hitler. Peter tries to figure out who he really is, and while he is discovering himself, he realizes how he can be both Jewish and the Catholic boy that he was raised to be. Peter makes good friends that help him discover the Jewish religion. This book was named as a Notable Social Studies Trade Book in 2010, and the story line is definitely more appropriate for an older audience due to needing to understand the background knowledge of what happened in Germany during World War II in order to understand the context of this story. I would recommend this book for a World War II unit in social studies in order to support the curriculum.

[Virginia Walter · Rating 3 out of 5]

The war has been over for ten years, and 13-year-old Peter and his friends are tired of hearing their teacher accuse them and the rest of the Germans for what happened to the Jews. How can he be blamed for what happened then? It all changes when he learns that his parents rescued him from a Jewish mother on a train headed for the Dachau death camp.

[Terrie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ten years after WWII, Peter and his friends are learning about and living the effects of the war in West Germany. This is a good first book in explaining the holocaust, the German attitudes pro and anti Hitler, the Berlin Wall, and anti-sematism. Although the tone is very subdued, it is an intense and interesting book. I read it in one sitting.

[Karin · Rating 3 out of 5]

13yo boy in post ww2 germany finds out his parents have been keeping a secret from him for the past 10 years. (spoiler: turns out his parents are not his birth parents; they rescued him from young jewish woman being sent to concentration camp). good writing, interesting story.

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fantastic book! It is about how this kid named Peter finds out he is Jewish in Nazi Germany. He also finds out his birth mother gave him up to his "adopted" parents when she was going to a concentration camp. He tries to be Jewish, but he is confused about who he is.

[Carolynne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not up to Gloria Whelan's usual standard. There are so many World War II novels that a new one needs to be special in some way to garner attention--insightful and fresh or rich and complex. This doesn't measure up.

[Emilia Mshar · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book I have been reading for the past two weeks is called After the Train. After the strain is a book by Gloria Whelan. After the Train takes place in the past, in a very different time. During the time this book takes place, the World War Two had just ended. Jewish people had just recently gotten their freedom back. A younger boy named Peter is ready for summer, in his town of Rolfen. Peter was a normal boy. He had his friends, and his family. Everything is just fine for Peter, until he finds a certain letter. Peter, while searching for something of his own, finds a letter and picture of his mother. Yet, the lady in the photo he doesn’t recognize. Throughout the book, Peter uncovered many truths about what happened during the war and where he really comes from. So how does a Peter handle these truths?
After the Train is actually a book I read when I was much younger. I fell in love with the book, and searched for years to find it again. I eventually found and now have my own copy, which I decided to reread. Though it’s been a while, all the memories and love for this book have fallen back in place. I got incredibly attached to his book off the back because when I first read it it was about a subject that was completely new to me. The book was about a different time and had many different experiences that I was not used to. It was the first book I read that actually had meaning. It was the book that transitioned me from more childish books, to more intense books. That brings me onto the next point. While the topic of the book is wonderful and filled with information, I don’t love the way it was written. For being a little bit more of a mystery, it was a very straight forward. That being said, I still give this book 5/5 stars. Even being in such a different world than the characters, I still felt like I knew them and attached to them. I think the fact that the author was able to do such a thing, is very impressive. I also like how she was able to connect life from the past, and make it relatable to our lives now. After the Train would be a great book for anyone who is interested in war topics, but not necessarily non fiction ones. I personally am not big on history, but do enjoy books like After the Train that take a real event and create a beautiful story out of it. The author was able to take something so important, and make a book that still expresses the experiences, yet in a more gentle way. I also think this book would be great for anyone who enjoys mystery. Like I said before, the mystery factor is somewhat deluded, but it is still a great mystery book

[BRBRB · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a very dissapointing book and extremely sterile and unrealistic.
In 1955, Peter Leibig is having much fun playing soccer with his best friends until he finds a stack of secret letters between his parents suggesting he is adopted. The letters talk of a "new child" when Peter was actually four!
Yet Peter asks his parents if he actually was adopted. They refuse to tell him at first, but after much begging Peter's father tells him that during the war, Mrs. Leibig had a job at the red cross at Dachau making the sick go to down the left path and the healthy go to the right. She saw a Jewish woman carrying a sick toddler and grabbed him, and told her boss that the boy was her son. Mrs. Leibig tried to take other children, but she couldn't carry them all
And after learning of his adoption, Peter wants to love his parents yet also abandon them by becoming Jewish.

I have read several Gloria Whelan books and I really haven't liked them. This novel was very odd, how Peter's mother took the boy out of the crowd while German soldiers where watching. This didn't make sense at all. "After the Train" was also very un-emotional and sterile.
If you want to read a historical junior fiction novel set during the holocaust I recommend The Book Thief by Markus Zusak and Once by Morris Gleitzman.

[Joan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting children's historical novel set in 1955 after WWII in a small town in West Germany. Scars of the Nazi regime and anti-Semitism are still evident. 13-year-old Peter is helping his architect father to rebuild their bomb damaged Catholic church. Peter suffers from persistent nightmares of being separated from an unknown young woman in a chaotic scene in a train station. Then he reads a letter that he was never supposed to see and begins to doubt that the man and woman he is living with are not his birth parents.

[JL Salty · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rating: pg wwii facts: trains, holocaust, anti-Semitic racism. No sex, no profanity.
Recommend: historical fiction readers jh and up - would be an easy fast read for hs readers.

A predictable story, and Peter is a little over the top with his confusion about who he is and what he “should” believe. Not to mention where belief comes from.
Anyhow.
It’s fine. Not whelan’s best book.

[Janine Darragh · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book about living in Germany after WWII felt so didactic to me it was annoying. I appreciate the concept and thought it had potential, but I didn't love the characters, and to me it was predictable and preachy. Best suited for upper elementary/middle school readers.

[Christa R · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an interesting point of view on life in Germany after the war for jews and also the hard reality of what happened to some kids who were saved from destruction but lost their families and identities. It also shows how some Germans did stand up to the evil.

[Nicole · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good book! Reading this book makes me think about how many kids this actually happened to.

[emma grace · Rating 5 out of 5]

February 2010 review:

This is the story of a thirteen year old boy named Peter Liebig, who lived in Germany, ten years after WWII ended. His father was a solider for the German army. He is perfectly happy with his life; it is summer, and he and his two best friends do everything from fishing in the dangerous part of the river and saving an escaped man from the communist side of Germany, to earning money at the beach. But when Peter discovers a letter while snooping in his mother’s room that he was never meant to see, he begins to doubt whether the people he is living with are really his parents. Peter tries to find out on his own if he has other parents, but he does not dig up any more information. Peter finally confronts his “father” and demands to know who his real mother is, but he is completely taken aback when Mr. Liebig replies he doesn't know. Mr.Liebig promises to tell Peter everything, but only after he talks to Peter’s “mother” about it. Peter waits for several days, and finally they are ready to talk to him. They tell Peter that while Mr. Liebig was away at war, Mrs. Liebig had to stay alone. She worked as a nurse for German soldiers, and one day, some trucks drove into the place where she was stationed. The Trucks turned out to be full of people, and Mrs. Liebig knew by the yellow stars on their coats that they were Jews. When the Jews were being marched past her amazed eyes, one of them tried to break away and run, and the guard surrounding them were distracted. A woman shoved her baby at Mrs. Liebig and told her to take him, and save him. Mrs. Liebig hid the baby that was Peter and took care of him until the war was over and Mr. Liebig could return to them. Peter is astounded. He had never guessed that he was a Jew. Mr. and Mrs. Liebig tell him that he can choose if he wants to be Jewish, or his previous religion of Christianity. Peter continues to live his life as before, but there is a difference that was not there before. Peter discovers what it was really like for Jews during the second world war. This was an awesome book, very gripping; I read it in a day!

[Cassondra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Children's Books Too Cool For School I was distinctly underwhelmed by this little post-Holocaust tale set in Germany shortly after the war. Although it seemed to want to have a strong didactic bent, trying to drive home messages about tolerance and the importance of history, the story's very distance in time, location, and circumstance to its own ideal reader makes that message likely to fall flat. It is a highly literary little volume, but for all that, I wonder who's going to read it? And more to the point, love it? After the Train tells the story of a young German boy sick of hearing about the Jews. Not that he suffers from any antisemitic notions, but rather that for a young boy who doesn't really remember the war, the whole thing seems so distant now. However, a few things in his life make him begin to question these feelings. He notices that not everyone seems to have moved beyond Jew-hatred. Then the real bombshell drops -- he finds he's adopted, and (not surprisingly) Jewish. So what does that make him? Should he eat pork? Should he go to synagogue? And how will this change how the world around him reacts to him? While interesting in premise, the whole thing may be just a wee bit to cerebral for this age. There isn't any real driving crisis or moment of tension. It really is mostly a quick read about a boy's image of himself after he discovers the story of his rescue from a cattle car headed to a concentration camp. It's very well-written, but, again, it doesn't really seem to have an audience. On the plus side for those that like to introduce a subject like the Holocaust with gentleness, the book is remarkably free of violence and only very lightly touches on the subject of Nazi behavior towards Jews. Good for girls and boys around 10-12.

[Ann Marie · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I will push for this one to be on a summer reading list I can only give it three stars...I thought the story held promise...it was from a point of view worth listening to...while it dealt with the Holocaust it did not...I think the story ended flat...it took me a while to read and that in itself will be a major turn off for the student however it took a piece of information rarely touched and shed some light on it for the reader...I would place it at a fourth - fifth grade reader...Peter is raised christian and at the age of thirteen when everyone's life seems to be changing he learns he was really Jewish...that his mother - on her way to the death camps - handed him over to a stranger with the hopes of preserving his life...Peter fights with his inner demons as he helps to restore both a church and a synagogue...so the whole story was very good but then it just sort of stops...the only thing missing was the final page with the words "The End" shame

[Monica Edinger · Rating 2 out of 5]

Earnest alone rarely works for me, especially when it is about something personal to me. (I'm the daughter of German Jews, lived in Germany, lost immediate relatives in the Holocaust, have relatives living there, and so forth and so on.) The boys did not ring true for me --- one minute thinking about girls and the next minute reading Karl May and playing out the book. (This last was the final nail in the coffin for me as my parents spoke often about May, I had friends in Germany who were nuts about him. These boys would have been reading that book ages before now and playing him at age 13?) Felt like everything and the kitchen sink was thrown in --- East and West Germany post-war (my father's specialization, so I know about this. I was in Berlin in 1965), dealing with WW11 for Germans post-war, etc, etc, etc. Eh.

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's been 10 years since World War II ended. In the West German town of Rolfen most people are getting by well enough and buildings are being rebuilt. Peter Liebig is tired of hearing about the war -after all he was only a toddler then and it had nothing to do with him. Or did it? Peter has a recurring nightmare about a young woman handing him out in the darkness and being covered by her tears. Is it really a nightmare, or a memory? A letter Peter discovers in his parents room answers that question, but raises many many others.

I like Gloria Whelan very much and most of her books totally transport me into the setting. This one was OK. While I appreciated that it didn't provide any easy answers, I was never completely absorbed by it. Still, it would be a good historical fiction choice (for boys especially) for 5th(4th?) grade and up.

[Morgan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Trying to read more juvenile historical fiction. This one fit in well with having just read Man's Search for Meaning. I've never read anything by the prolific Michigan author Gloria Whelan until now.

Overall it seemed like a good story. Kind of didactic. A whole lot of telling, not as much showing. It would be a good quick read for someone looking for a WWII book even though it is set 10 years after the war. I will say that the post-war aspect was the most interesting. It's easy to assume that once the war was over, the Jewish population started thriving and didn't have to put up with anymore terror. Reading a book like this reminded me how untrue that really is.

[Paige Y. · Rating 1 out of 5]

I think was disappointed me the most about this book was its potential. I have enjoyed Gloria Whelan's previous books, and this novel covered a period of history I hadn't seen written about in children's literature -- Germany 10 years after the war.

I found two main problem areas with the book. First of all, the writing seemed awkward and choppy. Secondly, there were many points at which the reader was being taught a "lesson" -- on Judaism, on Claus von Stauffenberg, on East Germany and communism. Now I like to learn something when I read historical fiction, but the the historical facts should be seamlessly integrated into the story. They weren't in this one.

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

The best part about this novel is that it can make you think about an era seldom written about. Unfortunately, while it makes you think, it doesn't have that something extra that makes it a good book to buy and re-read. Part of the problem is I honestly thought the main character was female until I was told otherwise (it seems a rare gift for a female author to really take on the male persona). It reads like a novel that's more of an idea than a story...she tried her best to give this story more, but it didn't really work well.

[Tanja · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story is set in the Western part of Germany in 1955 and right from the start I felt very much connected to the main character. What a coincidence that my hometown is nearby the main character's hometown (i.e. Ulm). Just as the boy in the story, as a child I wondered very much why we would talk about World War II in school over and over again. I had similar questions and wonderings regarding the role family members might have played during the war. This is great historical fiction that touches on many issues of Germany's past and presence.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've never been disappointed in a Gloria Whelan book. She writes such good young adult novels that tackle big issues and make the reader better for having read her books. I usually think she writes such good books for young girls, but this book is a great one for a boy. It takes place in West Germany post WWII where a young boy uncovers a secret that changes the way he views himself and everyone around him. It's a little predictable, but it has the beautiful figurative language I've come to expect from Whelan.

[Jessica]

This book didn't catch or keep my attention through the language or characters. I read more than half of this book before deciding this was not my idea of a Newbery contender. This book presents an interesting perspective on what might have happened in German communities in the aftermath of WWII. This still did not keep me interested enough to keep reading and find out the answer to Peter's secret.

[Terry]

This is an exceptional book. Gloria Whelan is an award winning author. After the Train is what I believe is a piece of children's literature as opposed to children's "books." This story is flawless and Whelan's ability to keep the reader glued to the page is exceptional.

To read our full review, go to The Reading Tub®.

[Sherry Rampey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Whelan provides good details about WWII. She weaves in the story of those, ordinary heros, that saved lives in the smallest ways. Peter is a character, who accepts who he is and who he is not. Whelan takes the time to put intricate details throughout the novel; however, she comes to a rather abrupt ending. The audience is left wondering what exactly did happen to his mother. A good book for a World History course. This is best for 6th-8th graders.

[Jasmine · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wouldnt recommend this book because to me it wasn't that interesting. There where only two pretty good parts in this book. The two good parts were when he found out the secret that his parents have been keeping from him and what happens at the hotel. After it had a good part it would become boring and then it would have another good part and be boring again. I think that this book could have been alot better than it was.