Max - Hardcover

Cohen-Scali, Sarah

4.24

3,874 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1626720711 ISBN 13: 9781626720718

Publisher: Roaring Brook Press, 2017

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Nazi Germany. 1936.

In the Lebensborn program, carefully selected German women are recruited by the Nazis to give birth to new members of the Aryan race. Inside one of these women is Max, literally counting the minutes until he is born and he can fulfill his destiny as the perfect Aryan specimen.

Max is taken away from his birth mother soon after he enters the world. Raised under the ideology and direction of the Nazi Party, he grows up without any family, without any affection or tenderness, and he soon becomes the mascot of the program. That is until he meets Lukas, a young Jewish boy whom he knows he is meant to despise. Instead, the friendship that blossoms changes Max’s world forever.

Translated from the original French, Sarah Cohen-Scali brings the details of the Lebensborn program to light in this haunting and heartbreaking novel.

A Neal Porter Book

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About the Author:

Sarah Cohen-Scali has written many novels and short stories for young readers. Her young adult novel Max, first published in France, has won several awards including the prestigious Prix Sorci�res 2013. Max is her first book with Roaring Brook Press. Sarah lives in Paris with her family.

From School Library Journal:

Gr 9 Up—Chilling and thought provoking, Cohen-Scali's novel contemplates the legacy of Lebensborn, Hitler's mandated mating of "racially pure Aryan" men and women. With a touch of magical realism, Konrad begins his first-person narrative in utero with hateful and articulate speeches, reflecting a maturity well beyond his years. He is a Lebensborn child, and his internal monologue is that of an unapologetic, sociopathic white supremacist. Konrad witnesses the horrors of the Third Reich, such as the systemic raping of women, infanticide, and other atrocities, yet to him, they are simply part of life. As the model Aryan youth, he obediently follows orders and aids in the kidnapping of Polish children for "Germanization." Konrad's soul is thrown a lifeline when he enters Germanization school and befriends an older boy, Lukas, who soon reveals himself (only to Konrad) as Jewish. Lukas pities Konrad and sees the wounded child behind the hate speech he uses, and he tells Konrad that they must survive in order to bear witness. At the war's end, will he be Konrad, the indoctrinated Nazi, or Max, the child so lovingly named by his mother? To what will he bear witness? Readers are left with a horrifying question: Was Hitler's goal of raising young people to "terrify the rest of the world" attained? An author's note includes brief discussion of historical figures who appear in the book. VERDICT A mature, provocative perspective on a harrowing history, the effects of which reverberate today. Consider for high school and public library collections and for curriculum connections.—Laura Falli, McNeil High School, Austin, TX

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