Catching the Wind

Catching the Wind is the best book I've read so far this year.  When the Gestapo come to Dietmar's and Brigitte's homes and arrests their parents, Dietmar and Brigitte (ages 13 and 10) run away from Germany.  Dietmar and Brigitte are best friends and stay together through all kinds of trials and obstacles.  Dietmar is also Brigitte's knight, and he carved a little princess for Brigitte.  Fast forward seventy years later, and Dietmar is now known as Daniel and he wants to find Brigitte.  He hires Quenby Vaughn to investigate and find her.

Melanie Dobson has written the book with a look at World War II as it was lived in England and a look at the present day investigative journalism.  Even though World War II ended over seventy years ago, there are still people who still stand with Germany's Fascism of the era.  Melanie has also included parts of the war most people were unaware of or refused to acknowledge--microphotography, Fascist sympathetic neighbors who were working as double agents, and refugees who were picked up to be used as slaves.

There were times I laughed (but not many) and even more times I cried.  The troubles that Dietmar and Brigitte experienced are beyond my reckoning, but Melanie's skill with a pen brought them to life in a way that makes the reader feel as if he or she is in the middle of the plot.

I wish I could give this more than five stars, but that's all I am allowed, but I'll add my usual two thumbs up, and a carved princess to see you through the trials.

My thanks to Tyndale House Publishers for allowing me to read and review this book.