An achingly beautiful work of historical fiction that moves between Germany on the eve of World War II and present-day Wisconsin, unspooling a thread of love, longing, and the powerful bonds of family. Annelise is a dreamer: imagining her future while working at her parents' popular bakery in Feldenheim, Germany, anticipating all the delicious possibilities yet to come. There are rumors that anti-Jewish sentiment is on the rise, but Annelise and her...

The protagonist moves to America after World War I, and Old World meets New World.

Elise Sontag is a typical Iowa fourteen-year-old in 1943--aware of the war but distanced from its reach. Then her father, a legal U.S. resident for nearly two decades, is suddenly arrested on suspicion of being a Nazi sympathizer. The family is sent to an internment camp in Texas, where, behind the armed guards and barbed wire, Elise feels stripped of everything beloved and familiar, including her own identity. The only thing that makes the camp bearable...

"Offers readers a compelling look into the lives, challenges, and successes of German immigrants. Additional features include a Fast Facts page, a timeline, informative photo captions, critical-thinking questions, primary source quotes and accompanying source notes, a phonetic glossary, additional resources for further study, and an index"--Provided by the publisher.