Dark Tales of Dark Times - Darkness Over Denmark by Ellen Levine

Reading List
Written By Rebecca Grabill
Darkness Over Denmark by Ellen Levine

Darkness Over Denmark by Ellen Levine

Darkness Over Denmark by Ellen Levine. Holiday House, 2000.

The moving story of Danish resistance to Hitler’s reign of terror. Levine finds the human stories in the history and weaves them together deftly, putting a face on events that would otherwise be abstract and distant from contemporary youth. Some thoughts:

  • Details: that’s where the devil is, to be sure. Levine’s text is drenched in detail, adding authenticity and making her scenes memorable.
  • Personal stories: stories of individuals obtained through research and interview are interwoven with the history to enhance and illumine the narrative.
  • Vivid: The writing is clear and precise, yet passionate. The author’s interest in and enthusiasm for this topic is clear on every page. I kept remembering the urgency and horror of Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five.
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Rebecca Grabill

Rebecca has been writing since childhood, her first book about a kitten published between homemade cardboard covers in second grade. Although she studied religion and philosophy in university, she continued writing, earning an MFA from Hamline University and publishing multiple picture books (no longer with homemade covers) and a collection of poetry with a variety of New York and independent publishers. She has also published a wide array of fiction, essays, and poetry in magazines and journals and photographs for Getty Images. She balances writing with homeschooling the younger of her six children, launching her young adults, church activities, and overseeing a small flock of chickens in rural West Michigan.

www.rebeccagrabill.com
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