Resistance by Jennifer A. Nielsen

My next challenge for the Book Junkie Trials was to read a book with war, political, or military themes. I decided to go with Resistance by Jennifer A. Nielsen for this prompt, as it met the requirement, was relatively short, and would be a good book to donate to my classroom library when I was finished. This was my third book by Nielsen. I read The False Prince years ago and enjoyed it quite a bit, but then I read The Scourge a few years after that and I wasn't so impressed. I started my reading curious to see how I would end up feeling about this one.

Resistance is set in WWII era Poland and follows a teenage girl named Chaya Lindner. Chaya is Jewish, but her blonde hair allows her to pass as a Polish girl. She uses this ability to join a Jewish resistance movement and works to smuggle various items in and out of the ghetto in Krakow. Although she is young, she learns her job quickly and becomes quite successful at it. She is passionate about fighting back against the Nazis, even though she knows she is facing insurmountable odds.

After a particularly dangerous mission ends in disaster for her cell, Chaya finds herself on the run and without a clear direction to head in. After a few days of hiding in a safe house, she is able to reunite with a member of her former cell, another teen girl named Esther. Esther explains that she has been given a new mission - she has to deliver an important item to a resistance cell in Krakow and she needs Chaya to help her. Willing to do anything to support her people, Chaya immediately agrees and the pair set off on a dangerous quest to stand up against an impossible enemy.

Resistance is a middle grades historical fiction novel, and it is clear that Nielsen did her research when writing it. There is a lot of factual information woven into the plot and young readers will probably learn quite a bit about the Holocaust from it. I have read several pieces of fiction and nonfiction about this era over the years, and even I was still able to learn a few new things in its pages. At the end of the novel, there is a short section containing factual information about some of the Jewish resistance fighters that inspired the characters in the book. Nielsen explains that she used real names and quotes for several of the resistance leaders shown throughout the text, and that her overall goal with this novel was to highlight the brave contributions these people made to help their people. In this effort, she was definitely successful; the novel does a nice job of informing readers about Jewish resistance movements during WWII and emphasizes their difficult and heroic fight against the Nazis.

Another area Nielsen was successful in was her action sequences. There are several battle scenes throughout the book, and each one feels suspenseful and dangerous. It's easy to cheer along Chaya while reading as she lobs Molotov cocktails at German tanks and takes down Nazi soldiers from a sniper's nest. The action doesn't let up from page one, and most of the final section of the novel focuses on a massive battle within the Warsaw ghetto that was extremely intense. While not overly graphic, Nielsen doesn't shy away from telling the truth about what fighting in a war is like. People starve, get sick, get tortured, get shot, and die in this novel. Young readers will definitely appreciate the breakneck pace and realistic depiction of violence here. One issue I frequently see when trying to use historical fiction in the classroom is that students tend to get bored quickly with it. I do not think that will be an issue with Resistance.

However, the strengths that will make this novel attractive to young readers are also the weaknesses that prevent it from having crossover appeal for older readers. The amount of historical information directly narrated by Chaya frequently feels clunky; some passages feel more like a lecture or a paragraph from a textbook than a fictional story. I suspect Chaya and her friends knew much more accurate and detailed information about German military strategy than real resistance fighters would have had at the time. Also, the perspectives offered by the characters often contain thoughts that are too accurate and sophisticated for a teenage character to come up with on their own. It's not realistic for a young girl who was just rescued from Nazi torture to calmly explain that, "The Nazis murder us many times over. They take our ability to worship properly - a spiritual death. They separate our families - another death there. They kill our dignity, our will to live, and finally they take our lives." Similarly, it's improbable for a teenage character in the middle of a battle to say that, "There is nothing more they can take from us, but today, we have taken their superiority, and their belief in our submissiveness. No matter how this ends, history will recognize today for its greatness." These statements sound like an adult writing about a historical event, with the benefits of research and historical perspective to inform their storytelling. I do not think that younger readers would even notice these issues, but it definitely took me out of the story from time to time. It didn't feel natural.

The nonstop action also has a negative effect for older readers, because it comes at the expense of character development. Chaya and her friends move from one encounter to the next throughout the text, with very few quiet moments for readers to make a connection with them or to watch them grow. There wasn't enough of a clear story for me in Resistance. Instead, there were a series of dangerous encounters to watch the characters get through. I could never really tell where the plot was going from one chapter to the next and I never felt especially invested in any of the characters. It is clear that Nielsen's priority here was to teach about the Jewish resistance during WWII. It was not to create an original story about a character who was a Jewish resistance fighter. That's fine, but I couldn't help wanting more out of this novel. When I think back to books like The Book Thief, Between Shades of Gray, or Code Name Verity, which managed to both teach readers about WWII and tell extremely emotional, original stories, I can't help but think that Resistance fell a bit short of what is possible in historical fiction for young people.

I think what Nielsen has done in this novel is valuable and important for her intended readers. She was successful at creating an informative and action-packed story that kids won't be able to put down. Children will learn more about the Holocaust from reading this. That's a wonderful thing. For me, however, Resistance fell short. The story was thin and the characters weren't deep enough for me. I very much appreciate Nielsen's efforts to inform readers about a lesser-known part of WWII, and I can definitely see myself recommending this novel to my students in the future. Personally though, It's not one that I will be picking up again. 


Challenge Tally
Book Junkie Trials (The Elven Guard - Read a book with war, political, or military themes) 14/17
Finally in 2019: 34/6 Books Read - Complete!

Total Books Read in 2019: 52