Review Detail

Cloud and Wallfish

Middle Grade Fiction 188

If your parents were spies...

October 30, 2016 (Updated: June 29, 2026)

Overall rating

4.0

Plot

4.0

Characters

N/A

Writing Style

N/A

Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)

N/A

Noah is suddenly spirited away from the U.S. to East Germany by his parents, who claim his mother is going to research children with speech impediments like Noah's, and his father is going to write a novel. They are insistent on changing their names and details of their lives just because... Jonah goes along with it, because what else do you do when you are ten? East Germany is a rough place to be in 1989, and Jonah is happy to meet Claudia in his apartment building. She's living with her grandmother because her parents have been killed on vacation in Hungary, and the two become fast friends. School is horrible for Jonah even though his German is pretty decent; his stutter makes the teachers not take him seriously, and they don't want him to talk to the other students about the U.S. Eventually, it comes out that Jonah's parents aren't what they seem.
Strengths: The details of life in East Germany at this time are exquisite, and Nesbet's experience and research add a lot to the book. Even the format is intriguing-- after each chapter, there is a little bit of information on one of the facets of life.

Good Points

First of all, I would just like to say that there apparently WAS a Batman backpack available in 1989. This book was so well researched, and drew on the author's personal experience, but that one item seemed out of place, and I had to check to make sure it really existed!

There have not been too many books about the Berlin Wall-- Nielsen's A Night Divided, Kephart's Going Over, and Degens' Freya on the Wall are the only ones I can think of. This is clearly a much needed addition to the range of historical fiction, and Nesbet's experiences in Europe at that time enrich the novel considerably.

At its core, this is a novel of friendship, and of fitting into another culture. The fact that Noah was dragged away from the Unites States and thrown into life in East Germany will intrigue many readers who secretly believe that their own parents could, in fact, be spies!