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Daniel Half Human | 
 enlarge | Author: David Chotjewitz
Creator: Doris Orgel
Publisher: Simon Pulse
List Price: $5.99
Buy Used: $0.01
You Save: $5.98 (100%)
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Rating:  2 reviews
Sales Rank: 324486
Media: Mass Market Paperback
Reading Level: Young Adult
Pages: 336
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.8 x 1.1
ISBN: 0689857489
EAN: 9780689857485
ASIN: 0689857489
Publication Date: February 28, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Former Library book. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. 100% Money Back Guarantee. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy!
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Product Description
At the dawn of Hitler's rise to power in Germany in 1933 and a period of the most brutal, aggressive anti-Semitism the world has ever seen, two boys swear eternal brotherhood by slitting their wrists and mingling their blood. Having experienced so much together, even a night in jail after painting a swastika on a wall in the hated Communist section of Hamburg, Daniel and Armin had become the best of friends.But then, with the scar on his wrist still healing, Daniel receives some life-altering news: He is half-Jewish, and as such, half-hated by a growing number of neighbors, teachers, and friends. Quickly, he decides to keep his identity a secret, conspiring with Armin to join the Hitler Youth -- but only one of them can, and will, join, with terrible consequences.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Dissapointing March 22, 2007
T. D. (Reno, NV USA)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Teens are a notoriously challenging audience to write for, but given the right subject, the right characters, the right book, they can be fanatic readers. Many a devoted, mature reading life begins when the inexplicable evil of Nazism haunts a young heart. For adolescents, Holocaust writing is often their best introduction to memoir - I Have Lived a 1000 Years, Wiesel's Night - and historical fiction (Number of the Stars, The Devil's Arithmetic). Among such company, this is a lesser volume. To its credit, the book adequately sketches German life during and just prior-to the Nazi rise to power. Distinctions of class and party affiliation are made clear, and the insidious creep of totalitarianism over time is rendered well.
But on many other levels, the book fails to hit the mark. None of the characters is especially compelling, leaving the horrors at arms-length. There are shifts in time and perspective of narration that may leave weaker readers in the dust. The writing is clunky and oddly paced. So while this book isn't a failure, it falls short of both its subject and its audience. Recomended only for obsessive readers of the Holocaust.
 The bittersweet story of friendship gone wrong June 11, 2006
Kali (United Kingdom)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Until the spring of 1933, Daniel has been lucky enough to enjoy a good German childhood with his well off and well educated family. Daniel has even enjoyed jail because one exciting night along with his best friend, Armin, they were caught painting a swastika on a wall in the hated Communist section of Hamburg.
In their cell, the boys the boys swear lasting brotherhood but this camaraderie is soon threatened by a family secret for Daniel learns that his mother is in fact Jewish, that he is half-Jewish and therefore in the eyes of the Nazis who are rapidly rising to power in Germany, half-human.
Daniel decides to keep the truth a secret and he Armin excitedly talk of joining the Hitler Youth. Armin's father forbids it as he is a Socialist but Armin joins anyway and the seeds of tragedy are planted for both boys who remain friends despite everything but eventually their friendship is overrun by the times they are living in and Daniel is forced to make a choice, stay in German surely die or leave with his parents to a safe haven outside of Europe.
The story shows the rise and fall of Nazi Germany and the rise and fall of a friendship that is destined to come full circle, for with the fall of Nazi Germany and the allied invasion a young American solider (Daniel) is interviewing German soldiers who may or may not have been in the Nazi Party and among them is Armin and the young American solider has a choice, should he ignore what he knows to be the truth despite Armin's protests, that the Armin was a member of the Nazi party or let him go.
This is a book about friendship and what we do in the name of our beliefs, well written, totally haunting, this is a book that both adults and children can read and enjoy.
Sometimes we have to stand up and be counted no matter what the consequences.
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