Flames of the Tiger

Dave Jenkinson is a professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Manitoba and the author of the “Portraits” section of Emergency Librarian.

In his novel And in the Morning (2002), John Wilson wrote about World
War I; with this most recent war-related title, he turns to World War
II. While most juvenile novels about those conflicts are typically told
from either the victor’s perspective or that of Holocaust victims,
Flames of the Tiger is an exception, for it is narrated by one of “the
enemy.”

In May 1945, Dieter Hammer, almost 17, and his sister, Greta, 12, are
fleeing Berlin as it is being surrounded by Russian troops when they
encounter Joe Gordon, a Canadian soldier who sustained a severe head
wound while destroying a Tiger tank. Dieter, recognizing the need to
keep Joe awake, does so by narrating the story of his life, a period
dominated by Hitler and the National Socialists. Dieter comes from a
house divided, one in which he found himself caught between two people
he loves—his father, Ernst, and his older brother, Reinhard, a member
of the SS. Ernst, a veteran of the Great War, is, from the outset,
highly critical of Hitler and the Nazis, while Reinhard, initially
dazzled by the Nazi uniforms and pageantry, believes that his father is
living in the past and that Hitler offers the way to a glorious future
for Germany.

As Dieter relates how his family experienced the effects of both
Hitler’s rise to power and the war, Wilson skilfully and unobtrusively
weaves historical facts into the narrative. The novel invites
middle-grade readers to maintain a questioning and critical stance
regarding their own government’s behaviours. Recommended.