Sev­er­al books have been writ­ten about the Scholl fam­i­ly and the White Rose Resis­tance orga­ni­za­tion, which stood up to Hitler and the Nazi Par­ty in Ger­many of the 1930s. This recount­ing by Ani­ta Fitch Pazn­er shares the sto­ry of sib­lings Sophie and Hans Scholl, two young Ger­man cit­i­zens who orig­i­nal­ly joined the Nazi youth move­ments but grad­u­al­ly came to see the dam­age Hitler and his fol­low­ers were doing to minori­ties, includ­ing the Jews, as well as to Ger­man soci­ety as a whole. Hans and Sophie, uni­ver­si­ty stu­dents, spoke up, dis­trib­uted pam­phlets, and tried to help in any way they could. They paint­ed anti-Hitler slo­gans in pub­lic spaces and recruit­ed oth­ers to their cause. While the war raged around them, they redou­bled their efforts, try­ing to per­suade as many peo­ple as pos­si­ble to com­bat the Nazis. Even­tu­al­ly, they were caught, charged with trea­son, and sub­ject­ed to the death penal­ty. They will be long remem­bered for their courage and for their ded­i­ca­tion to their ideals. 

The author talks about Hans and Sophie, not only to teach about an impor­tant piece of his­to­ry, but also to demon­strate that words mat­ter, that words can make a huge dif­fer­ence in learn­ing, in brav­ery, and in the call to action. This is a vital les­son that young read­ers absorb and can learn to live by.

The text is accom­pa­nied by well-exe­cut­ed col­or illus­tra­tions and is fol­lowed by an exten­sive his­tor­i­cal note explain­ing more about Hans and Sophie Scholl and the times in which they lived. The author empha­sizes the lega­cy they left and the impor­tance of speak­ing up against evil, injus­tice, and tyranny. 

She reminds us that Hans and Sophie Scholl are role mod­els and con­tin­ue to inspire oth­ers to under­stand his­to­ry and do what is right.