"[T]he author manages the neat trick of both conveying an enormous amount of historical information while also providing a nail-biting, edge-of-your-seat plot peopled with vivid, imperfect and believable characters."
—RT Book Reviews
* "[A]lthough the story's action follows [Code Name Verity]'s, it has its own, equally incandescent integrity. Rich in detail, from the small kindnesses of fellow prisoners to harrowing scenes of escape and the Nazi Doctors' Trial in Nuremburg, at the core of this novel is the resilience of human nature and the power of friendship and hope."—Kirkus Reviews, starred review
* "Wein excels at weaving research seamlessly into narrative and has crafted another indelible story about friendship borne out of unimaginable adversity."—Publishers Weekly, starred review
* "Readers will connect with Rose and be moved by her struggle to go forward, find her wings again, and fly."—School Library Journal, starred review
" Rose Under Fire' is bound to soar into the promised land of young adult books read by actual adults-and deservedly so, because Wein's unself-consciously important story is timeless, ageless and triumphant."—The Los Angeles Times
PRAISE FOR CODE NAME VERITY
*"A riveting and often brutal tale of WWII action and espionage with a powerful friendship at its core. [an] expertly crafted adventure."—Publishers Weekly, starred review
"Wein's second World War II adventure novel - the first, "Code Name Verity," was highly praised last year - captures poignantly the fragility of hope and the balm forgiveness offers."—The New York Times
PRAISE FOR CODE NAME VERITY
"This astonishing tale of friendship and truth will take wing and soar into your heart."—Laurie Halse Anderson, New York Times best-selling author of Speak, Fever 1793 and Wintergirls
PRAISE FOR CODE NAME VERITY
"I closed this book feeling I'd met real people I'd never forget. Code Name Verity's characters don't just stick with me-they haunt me. I just can't recommend this book enough."—Maggie Stiefvater, author of the New York Times best-selling Shiver trilogy, The Scorpio Races & Books of Faerie
PRAISE FOR CODE NAME VERITY
"The unforgettable Code Name Verity played with my mind, and then it ripped out my heart."—Nancy Werlin, New York Times best-selling author
PRAISE FOR CODE NAME VERITY
"A fiendishly plotted mind game of a novel, the kind you have to read twice."—The New York Times
PRAISE FOR CODE NAME VERITY
*"A carefully researched, precisely written tour de force; unforgettable and wrenching."—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
PRAISE FOR CODE NAME VERITY
*"This novel positively soars."—The Horn Book (starred review)
PRAISE FOR CODE NAME VERITY
*"[A] taut, riveting thriller. Readers will be left gasping for the finish, desperate to know how it ends."—School Library Journal (starred review)
PRAISE FOR CODE NAME VERITY
*"[An] innovative spy tale built to be savored."—Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books (starred review)
PRAISE FOR CODE NAME VERITY
* "If you pick up this book, it will be some time before you put your dog-eared, tear-stained copy back down."—Booklist (starred review)
PRAISE FOR CODE NAME VERITY
"Maddie and Verity's extraordinary bravery is reflected in frank narrative as they both fight against time and a horrific, powerful enemy...The themes of hope, friendship, and determination even in the most impossible situations are relevant to all readers."—VOYA
PRAISE FOR CODE NAME VERITY
"It has been a while since I was so captivated by a character in YA fiction Code Name Verity is one of those rare things: an exciting-and affecting-female adventure story."—The Guardian
PRAISE FOR CODE NAME VERITY
"The word crossover appears many times on publisher information sheets, but this is the real deal. An incredibly assured debut novel, full of convincing detail, heart-stopping emotion and tension. I have high hopes for Code Name Verity."—The Bookseller
PRAISE FOR CODE NAME VERITY
"For me, Code Name Verity is the best of both worlds: an exciting, well-researched masterpiece of historical fiction with a contemporary sensibility....It brought me to tears to realize that I'll never be able to read it again for the first time. That is how powerful a story this is."—Richie's Picks
Accolades
Schneider Family Book Award, Best Teen Book, 2014
Top Ten YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults, 2014
New York Times Notable Children's Books of 2013
Kirkus Reviews Best Books of 2013
School Library Journal's Best Books of 2013
Publishers Weekly Best Children's Books of 2013
The Children's Book Review Best Young Adult Novels of 2013
NPR Best Books of 2013
BookPage Best Children's Books of 2013
Goodreads Choice for Best Young Adult Book of 2013 nominee
CILIP Carnegie Medal 2014 nominee
A Junior Library Guild Selection
2014 Tayshas List Selection
[London] Times Best Books of the Year
Costa Children's Book Award finalist
* "In plot and character this story is consistently involving, a great, page-turning read; just as impressive is how subtly Wein brings a respectful, critical intelligence to her subject."—The Horn Book, starred review
* "At once heartbreaking and hopeful, Rose Under Fire will stay with readers long after they have finished the last page."—VOYA, starred review
"The horror of the camp, with its medical experimentation on Polish women-called Rabbits-is ably captured. Yet, along with the misery, Wein also reveals the humanity that can surface, even in the worst of circumstances." —Booklist
"[A]n impressive story of wartime female solidarity."—The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
★ 10/01/2013
Gr 8 Up—This companion novel to Wein's Code Name Verity (Hyperion, 2012) tells a very different World War II story, with a different pilot. Rose Justice, an American, has grown up flying, and when she is given the opportunity to ferry planes to support the war effort in England in 1944, she jumps at the chance. It is during one of her missions that she purposefully knocks an unmanned V-1 flying bomb out of the sky and is captured by Nazi airmen. Once on the ground, she is taken to the infamous women's concentration camp, Ravensbrück. She is first treated as a "skilled" worker, but once she realizes that her job will be to put together fuses for flying bombs, she refuses to do it, is brutally beaten, and is then sent to live with the political prisoners. Once she's taken under the wing of the Polish "Rabbits"-young women who suffered horrible medical "experiments" by Nazi doctors-she faces a constant struggle to survive. After a daring escape, she recounts her experience in a journal that was given to her by her friend, Maddie, the pilot from Code Name Verity, weaving together a story of unimaginable suffering, loss, but, eventually, hope. Throughout her experience, Rose writes and recites poetry, and it is through these poems, some heartbreaking, some defiant, that she finds her voice and is able to "tell the world" her story and those of the Rabbits. While this book is more introspective than its predecessor, it is no less harrowing and emotional. Readers will connect with Rose and be moved by her struggle to go forward, find her wings again, and fly.—Necia Blundy, formerly at Marlborough Public Library, MA