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Oct 04, 2016IanH_KCMO rated this title 2 out of 5 stars
While it's certainly fascinating to read about the creepy/terrible state of East Germany, Schwartz's story plays like Persepolis light. His art even looks like that of a poor man's Marjane Satrapi! While it is a fascinating glimpse into living under a oppressive regime and the complications that arise when you try to escape, the storytelling isn't as compelling as it could be. The story chronicles his family's struggles to move to West Berlin, and while it's obvious this was at three-year stretch full of tension and fear, it's never really properly conveyed on the page. Despite the uneven storytelling and Schwartz's tendency to jump around in the chronology willy nilly thus disrupting the narrative thread that this tale sorely needs, I still think it's a useful text for the middle school audience it is geared toward as it covers a fascinating, creepy, and underreported part of European History.