When I saw a listing for a YA book about the White Rose Society on NetGalley, I nearly lost it. This story is incredibly dear to my heart because a few months back I had the opportunity to play the role of Sophie Scholl in my school's production of a play ([link to play script, redacted]- it isn't entirely accurate, but it's an excellent dramatization) about the White Rose Society. That show was hands-down my favorite one that I've ever been in and I was immensely inspired by the story of those incredible students, so there was almost no way I wasn't going to love this book. 

Though I knew I'd love the story itself, the style in which it was written was an unexpected plus. "White Rose" is written in verse, which is a style I don't often read and wouldn't expect to jibe very well with a story like this, but it worked. The stylistic freedom that writing in verse allows worked very well for this story; in many cases, it made for greater emotional impact, as spacing and punctuation could be used for emphasis moreso than they would be in a traditional novel. And I loved the flashback format - both because it let the author paint a richer picture of Sophie and because that is the same format in which "Antigone in Munich," the play I was in, was written. (I have to wonder if that's coincidental or not.) Many of the flashback scenes were also used, to some extent, in the play, and seeing references to events I remembered acting out always made me smile. (I had to grin my face off whenever Fritz and Sophie were on-page together remembering the way the audience hollered when I had to stage-kiss the actor playing Fritz...to give one example.) I don't want to let my personal experience overtake this review, but the fact that I knew the story so well was a key portion of the reason I enjoyed it: revisiting this story is always like seeing an old friend.  

Even if you are not, and I assume you aren't, in my position of having a strong personal connection to the White Rose story, there is a lot to love about "White Rose" - its prose is beautifully worded but impactful, its characterization minimalistic (this is a perfect example of "show, don't tell" - we're not told anything; we simply watch events unfold through Sophie's eyes) but effective, and its story timeless and incredibly important. The story of the White Rose Society first captured my heart because it's so inspiring - anyone could do what they did if they had the conviction and could muster up the courage - and that translates well here. "White Rose" is effective because it conveys without fail what makes its source material so compelling. That's what makes a great historical novel.

CLOSING: 


Recommended For: anyone, really. This is an important story, and "White Rose" tells it incredibly well.

Avoid If: reading a book about Nazis and/or one that touches on human brutality would cause you undue emotional strain.

Possibly-Objectionable Content: one scene alludes vaguely to an adult situation, another to drug use...ish (while making leaflets, the White Rose members use pills designed to help soldiers stay awake to pull an all-nighter). One use of the word "s--t." 

Rating: 5 out of 5 Confused Llamas

White Rose is so beautifully written. Based on the true story of student activists in WWII Germany, White Rose is written in verse as it follows Sophie Scholl in her attempt to free Germany from the oppressive fist of Nazi occupation. Though it is poetry, it wasn't written to rhyme, which made it easier for me to follow along. The story does not have a happy ending, which makes the read much more impactful.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Children's Book Group for providing me with an eARC of this title for review. . Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Only within this last year did I learn about the White Rose Resistance group.
So I was tickled when I went looking for more information on them and found that a new YA book was going to be published. Hans and Sophie had an interesting journey in regards to joining the resistance. It is a journey that I found quite intriguing in this story. They were two politically minded, German teens who were in support of the Third Reich in its beginning stages. They had hopes it would bring about the positive changes Germany so desperately needed. By the time World War II broke out, they would turn from supporters to resistors.

Something had to be done, they could no longer be complicit. People needed to be made aware that what their government was doing was wrong. There were people not only losing their basic human rights, but their lives for what seemed to be “no reason at all”. So, Hans and Sophie with other students of the University of Munich formed the White Rose, a student-led resistance movement.

I normally love stories written in verse. And I did love the content of this historical story. However, I didn’t feel like it flowed quite as well as books in verse that I have read previously. Regardless, as a lover of history, I am glad I was able to learn more about this amazing group of students who stood up against tyranny. I think fans of historical fiction will love this book.

I took a class in college called Creative Nonfiction where we read books like Virginia Woolf's Flush, Truman Capote's In Cold Blood, Tom Wolf's The Right Stuff...and a little book called Sophie Scholl and the White Rose addressing a subject I had no knowledge about.

While I'd always been drawn to WWII history, I had never heard of Sophie Scholl or the White Rose--a group of college students who started an anti-Nazi resistance campaign using leaflets. I devoured Sophie's story, and was SO excited to see a YA verse novel covering her story...what a great way to get her story to a wider audience.

Unfortunately, though the verse is beautiful, White Rose is disjointed and kind of vague. The story shifts from time period to time period...we start by seeing Sophie arrested and interrogated, then jump back to before she even joined the White Rose, then back and forth--with other random time periods (Kristallnacht, childhood) thrown in, too. I feel like sometimes I only knew what was going on because I already have a good deal of background knowledge.

So while I enjoyed this take on Sophie's story, I worry that some of my students might not be able to follow the complicated time jumps and get the most out of the story.

White Rose by Kip Wilson is absolutely stunning novel in verse about the life of Sophie Scholl. Scholl was an anti-Nazi political activist and pamphleteer with the non-violent resistance group called the White Rose. The detail and research that has gone into presenting her story and the story of the group is amazing. It's also quite gut-wrenching to read considering that I already knew her fate before going into the story. While novels in verse aren't usually my thing, this 100% worked for me and I can't recommend it highly enough. If you're a fan of The Book Thief by Markus Zusak and Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein, do yourself a favor and pick up Kip Wilson's White Rose. I can't wait to see Wilson's future projects. Thanks again, NetGalley!

Thank you, NetGalley for providing me with this digital ARC.

Wow. What a beautifully written historical fiction of the life of Sophie Scholl. I’m embarrassed to say that prior to this novel, I was unaware of the resistance work she did against Nazi Germany with creating the group White Rose.

Kip Wilson did a phenomenal job of staying true to the time period and captivating the conflicting feelings of fear and need to do something through Sophie’s story. While some readers have been bothered by the novel written in verse, I found the writing to be beautiful, moving, and a perfect vehicle for telling the story. I found my heart racing and tears running down my face as I read the last few pages.

This book needs to be in the hands of educators and students alike. Not only to share this incredible story, but to study the craft of this author’s writing.

I don't have much to say about this book. I usually don't enjoy books in verse because I think they lack the flow of a novel. White Rose has that poetic vibe to it-- obviously, because it's written like a poem-- but the story would have been a lot more interesting if it weren't written in verse. The book's topic is strong as it is, but it would have been even stronger with full sentences.

Maybe it was because I read White Rose too quickly, but it was just okay to me. I did enjoy the subject and the setting of WWII, but maybe that and YA poetry books aren't my thing.

Wow, this book. It's about a young (real life) German girl, Sophie Scholl who acted as a pampleteer in the White Rose resistance against Hitler, the Nazi party, the Third Reich. What a powerful premise. However, I had hesitations to read. Not because of that very alluring subject matter, but because the novel is written in verse and... that intimidated me⁣
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I wrote poetry in my adolescent days, but I don't believe i've written it, studied it, or read it since college. I was nervous the story wouldn't feel deep enough or that I wouldn't connect with the characters or even that I'd misunderstand the meaning (man, I remember some confusing poetry in my college courses). ⁣
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Silly, Jenni. What Kip Wilson has written is remarkable. It was impossible not to connect with Sophie, to not feel her pain and regret and sorrow and fear and disgust. I was SO IN on this book. In fact, I enjoyed the directness of each line. And even with that quick pace and those concise lines, man, did each word pack a punch. This book truly was powerful and I read it in a single setting, hooked as soon as my brain and eyes picked up the cadence of Kip's beautiful writing.⁣
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I'm glad I read it printed (well, my kindle as an egalley) because the formatting also adds to the story, but I think this would also be really great to listen to on audiobook.⁣
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I'd highly recommend that you spend some time with Sophie and Kip Wilson's prose. Both are inspiring.

I really enjoyed this one! At least, as much as one "enjoys" this subject matter, but it was well done. I did find the time skips a bit distracting at times; especially in the later middle part of the book, skipping between "the time they distributed fliers and got arrested" and "the time they distributed fliers in a similar place and DIDN'T get arrested" took me out of the emotional flow. But that was really my only complaint, and in other places the time skips worked very well - I found the flashbacks at the end, after the arrest, particularly impactful. The story was compelling, it challenged me to recontextualize my understanding of the current world, and it inspired me to learn more about Sophie Scholl and the White Rose, so all in all it did what I want a book like this to do. It didn't pack quite the emotional gut punch I expected and I can't quite put my finger on why, but I also flew through it and will be recommending it to others.

Kip WIlson's novel-in-verse is an emotional journey into what living in Nazi Germany must have been like. Her characters are brought to life through intense feelings, reactions, and love. The fierceness of the main character comes through on each line.

This is another beautiful and powerful read detailing Sophie Scholl's fight for what is right against the disgusting acts committed by the Nazis. The present is woven into chunks of the past, letting the reader get to know Sophie, her four siblings, and their parents at the start of Hitler's reign. Written in prose from Sophie's perspective, she details how her and her brother Hans went from supporting Hitler to fighting against everything he stood for. Right from the beginning we learn that Sophie and her brother are captured and being interrogated by the Nazis for creating and distributing leaflets of anti-Nazi and anti-German propaganda, and it's no secret that Sophie and her companions are executed for their actions.

So with knowing that there won't be a happy ending, the prose format makes the words and details even more striking as we live through Sophie's years up until her death. She knows she is part of the minority who wants to fight against the hatred, racism, and death that Hitler enacted. She knows her actions are risky and yet she, her brother, and a group of friends named White Rose get together to make and distribute leaflets into German towns to try and start a revolution against the Nazis. Sophie's journey ended too soon, but reading the glossary at the back depicting information on each character tore me apart. Almost every member of White Rose was executed and out of the five Scholl siblings, three perish (Sophie and Hans for treason, and Werner during battle).

I had never heard of Sophie's story and impact until I came across this book, and Kip does a magnificent job shining light on the bravery of the White Rose group despite knowing everything they were risking for their voices to be heard.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

This should be required reading for grades 7&up. This is an aspect of Nazi Germany I knew little about and there couldn't be a more crucial time for it's message

Thank you to Netgalley and publisher for an early e-galley for review. I couldn't agree more with Kwame Alexander's comments "Sometimes when the world is not so beautiful, words can give us hope. Books can heal us."
I love a good book in verse. I think it takes extreme talent to tell a story with few words. And Kip Wilson has that talent. To tell a historical story through verse must be even more daunting. What details are the most important ? What can you leave out? Well, nothing felt missing in this book. You learn the history of the White Rose resistance group speaking out against the Reich. Its actually a brilliant way to reach teens. Teens are more used to getting their information quickly. Verse is a format that can give that to them AND add depth and feeling when done so well
Also, the way the author switches from Before and End kept me in suspense and I absolutely couldn't put it down. Easily read in one sitting. You get history and the powerful, timely message about the importance of not being complacent, standing up for your beliefs and the right for others. I will be recommending this to students and buying teachers classroom copies.

Powerful verse novel that brings heart to Sophie Scholl's story. Good companion to use with We Will Not Be Silent by Russell Freedman,

A beautifully written free-verse poetry book about the story of three German resistance fighters from the group, the White Rose. Told primarily from Sophie Scholl’s perspective and begins literally at THE END when Sophie is being interrogated by the Nazi gestapo.

The background is told in flashback sections that give depth and meaning to the characters. The White Rose made leaflets about the true horrors of the Hitler Nazi regime and encouraged Germans to rise up against it.

The writing style gives each word so much weight and renders a unique twist to this powerful true story. One of my favorite poems in it says:
“won’t acknowledge
that our strongest weapon
is our refusal
to follow blindly.”

Sophie Scholl refused to be complicit to the Nazi atrocities and paid the ultimate price for her beliefs. Her story is heroic and still very applicable today. In the author Kip Wilson’s poetic words:
“singing banned songs
reading banned books
things we do
because
ideas
cannot
be
banned.”

I enjoyed this historical read and I feel like many of my students will enjoy reading this during and after studying this period in time. It reads quickly and does a great job creating a picture of this time period in history. Thank netgalley for this arc.

This was a good book, and I look forward to sharing it with students. The prose is very well done, and the historical elements are faithful.

Before I read this, all I knew about Sophie Scholl was that she was executed by the Nazis, not for being Jewish, but for politically agitating against Hitler and his regime. Kip Wilson brought Sophie to life in this short but powerful verse novel. So often, we focus on the experience of those in camps who resisted the Nazis, and not the few Germans who did. I think teens will snap this one up and be asking for more.

This book reminded me of The Watch that Ends the Night because of the various perspectives it seemed to weave in. There are not a huge number of books written about the Holocaust in free verse, so that also makes this title very appealing. It presented a really interesting aspect of the Holocaust: the resistance by exploring the various events and carefully crafting images that allowed readers to feel as if they were a part of the story.

White Rose is proof that a lot can be said by saying less. White Rose sends a powerful message of Sophie and her friends forming this group to survive Nazi Germany and even when Sophie and her brother get captured and charged for treason, she still remains brave and fighting for justice against Nazi Germany. The book was so deep and powerful and written so uniquely brilliant that we could not put this down and we know a lot of our patrons will be interested in the book.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. We will definitely consider this title for our YFiction collection. That is why we give this book 5 stars!

White Rose succinctly tells the story of Sophie Scholl, a member of the White Rose non-violent resistance group during World War II. What I enjoyed about this book are the alternating points of view used to tell her story and not just from her point of view. Using a combination of free verse and letters, the author tells shows us Sophie's life before, during, and after her life in the White Rose. The points of view of other characters, such as her love interest, family, and government officials, show us that while she was bravely standing up to something much larger than herself, that she was just an ordinary teen girl with hopes and dreams. This book is great for readers of WWII history and those who like brief, yet powerful books. White Rose is a great addition to the vast WWII genre!