Resist

Tom Palmer's Resist is a gripping Second World War story for 11 year olds about a young ballet dancer who secretly helps the Dutch resistance.

What happens

Edda is fourteen and it's 1943. She lives in Velp in the Netherlands, which has been under German occupation for over three years. There's never enough to eat. Bikes run on tyres stuffed with straw. The soldiers are even taking people's radios away.

Edda isn't really her name. She's Audrey. She went to school in England and her dad is British, so her mum has banned the English name in case it puts them in danger.

She wants to do more than wash bandages at the hospital. So she asks the doctor there, who's quietly part of the resistance, and he gives her a test. Can she memorise ten addresses? Easily. She's a dancer, and dancers have to remember everything.

Her first job is to deliver illegal newsletters right past the soldiers at the checkpoint. Her heart is pounding the whole way, and your reader's will be too.

Then she spots her own mother's name in the newsletter, on a list of people who can't be trusted.

It's a tense, gripping read. The everyday details make it feel very real. Potato soup served on the best tablecloth. A secret concert after curfew, with a blanket over the piano so no one outside will hear. Edda finishing her dance to total silence, because nobody dares to clap.

Worth knowing before you hand it over

Edda's uncle was shot by the Germans before the story starts, and the family are still grieving. Early on she watches frightened families being forced onto a train. Later her brother is grabbed by soldiers and driven away to work as a forced labourer in Germany, right in front of her. The threat of torture and execution hangs over everything.

None of it is graphic, but it's honest about how cruel the occupation was. A reader who's upset by families being split up might find it hard going. A reader who's already curious about the war, and ready for its real history, will find it gripping and very moving.

What to read next

If they want another girl finding her courage as the war closes in, try Safiyyah's War. Safiyyah lives in Paris and would rather be poring over old maps in the library, until the Germans march into France.