Enemies in the Orchard

July 10, 2023
An aura of tender sorrow pervades Vanderlugt’s 1944-set debut, a free-verse novel about two youths who meet due to a WWII labor camp program in the U.S. The paths of 13-year-old American Claire DeBoer and young German soldier Karl Hartmann cross when Karl is one of 250 German prisoners of war brought to a Michigan labor camp under terms with the Federal Emergency Farm Labor Agency. Assigned to the apple harvest on Claire’s family’s orchard, kindhearted, English-speaking Karl is stunned to learn of German government lies and to find that “now,/ as a captive,/ ... I’m more at peace/ than I ever was/ fighting at home.” Claire, whose 18-year-old brother is fighting abroad, is desperate to attend high school and become a nurse rather than give in to expectations to leave school and help on the farm until marrying. In spite of Claire’s initial distrust, which is amplified within the community, Claire and Karl slowly befriend each other as their perspectives of each other’s situations change. Via contemplative first-person narratives and occasional adapted news articles, Vanderlugt intimately limns each character’s experiences alongside those of a sympathetically drawn secondary cast. While eliding context around U.S. internment-camp practices in WWII, this bittersweet telling, per an author’s note based on little-known true events, is nevertheless rich in atmospheric and emotional detail. All characters cue as white. Ages 9–up. Agent: Amy Thrall Flynn, Rubin Pfeffer Content.

August 15, 2023
In a Michigan apple orchard in 1944, a German soldier and an American girl reflect on wartime life. Claire DeBoer, a careworn 13-year-old Dutch American girl, bears countless responsibilities on her family's farm and dreams of one day becoming a nurse. Karl Hartmann, a teenage German prisoner of war, arrives in Michigan to do agricultural work through a federal program. The book opens with atmospheric poems introducing each protagonist, effectively using George Ella Lyon's "Where I'm From" format. This reflective verse novel alternates their perspectives as it explores their intersecting lives. Claire's brother is fighting in Europe, so the dissonance of enemy soldiers on her farm feels like a cruel joke. Karl is awakening to the immensity of Nazi atrocities and anti-American propaganda, though some of his more nationalistic fellow prisoners are determined to make him suffer. Calm and dread intertwine: The soothing harvest-time rhythms intermingle with the ever-present threat of tremendous loss. Karl and Claire, having lost their youths to a global conflict, discover a tenuous friendship; the hinted-at mutual romantic feelings between an eighth grader and someone described as "almost a man" might cause some discomfort. VanderLugt's reflections on war's personal toll and the tensions of having enemy troops working in America offer opportunities for readers to consider matters from many angles. An author's note describes her inspiration--the German POWs who worked in her own grandfather's fruit orchards during the war. An emotionally layered vision of a difficult moment in history. (sources) (Verse historical fiction. 10-14)

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September 8, 2023

Gr 4-8-Claire, a 13-year-old daughter of apple farmers in Michigan, and Karl, a Nazi prisoner of war, find themselves in an unlikely friendship-with hints of more-when their lives intersect at Claire's family orchard. This novel-in-verse is based on a true story of a group of German POWs who were transported to the Midwest to help with labor shortages due to the large quantity of Americans fighting in the war. Through dual perspectives, VanderLugt aims to humanize the characters and show that Karl, who was a member of the Hitler Youth, recognizes the horrors of war and the way he was indoctrinated; he is portrayed as a sympathetic character. Pacing and character development flow well in this story and hold readers' interest. WWII fiction crowds historical fiction collections, though not many focus on the experiences of German soldiers on American soil. This book sheds some light on this part of history. VERDICT Recommended for purchase for upper elementary and middle school collections only where WWII fiction is in very high demand.-Monisha Blair

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