War Games

Gr 4-7–Gratz delivers another compelling narrative, this time at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Thirteen-year-old gymnast Evie Harris leaves her Dust Bowl refugee family behind to compete for Team USA. Largely ignored by her teammates, Evie has goals to bring home a gold medal, become famous, and lift her family out of poverty. Her plans change after meeting Solomon Monday, an opportunistic British journalist. He presents Evie with an incredible proposition: join him and two other Olympians in robbing the Reichsbank of its cache of Nazi gold. Her fervently anti-Nazi Olympian mates include Karl, a gay German weight lifter, and Ursula, a German-Wolof swimmer competing for France. What follows is a gripping heist story combined with a dramatic sports story, where the prewar German backdrop adds tension. The short, easily digestible chapters coupled with the plot’s high stakes enhance the book’s compulsive readability. Gratz’s vivid descriptions—from crowds enthusiastically cheering for Hitler to track-and-field athlete Jesse Owens’s triumphant performance—effectively embed readers in the drama of the 1936 games. Evie grapples with various moral dilemmas, such as the privilege she enjoys as an Aryan-presenting girl in a country that reviles her Black and Jewish teammates. Atrocities committed by the Nazis are handled in an age-appropriate manner. An author’s note provides additional context.