ARC review: Going Over by Beth Kephart

Ada and Stefan are in love. But like any star-crossed love story, there is something preventing them from being together: a wall that divides their city. Pink-haired Ada lives in West Berlin where freedom and self-expression rule the streets and have emboldened her to become an angsty, teenage graffiti artist. Stefan lives in the straight lines and drab colors of East Berlin where his life and job have been forced upon him, so he waits for the day when he can escape to the West to be with Ada.

I was very excited to read Beth Kephart's Going Over because, you see, Berlin is my absolute favorite city on earth. History resides on every corner and yet it possesses a vibrant, youthful energy. It is like no other city in the history of the world. A wall divided it for decades: on one side, the free west, on the other, the oppressed east. The duality was striking and it still is to this day. When you go up to the top TV tower on Alexanderplatz in what is former East Berlin, you can clearly see where East and West once resided. When the wall came down in 1989, it was by the will of the people rather than weapons that

West and East: still obvious when I visited in 2004

brought it down, which is what makes this city's story so compelling. When Beth Kephart says in the author's note:

"When I traveled to Berlin in the summer of 2011 I discovered a city palpably alive, brilliant with color. I stood before memorials. I cried inside museums. I touched pieces of the old graffiti wall and imagine the ache of being separated from people I loved, from landscapes I yearned to see."

That was my experience with Berlin when I traveled there in 2004. I loved everything about it. Its storied past. Its hopeful and frenetic future. I own a t-shirt that says "Ich bin ein Berliner" because I love this city so much (Side note: saying "Ich bin ein Berliner" is a totally legit thing to say. It doesn't mean "I'm a jelly doughnut.") 

It is fitting that I chose to post this review on Feburary 27th because it was ten years ago today that I first set foot in this amazing city. So given my clearly emotional investment in the city of Berlin, I think it has skewed my impression of Going Over somewhat. It was difficult to find MY Berlin in this book and that's precisely why I had a hard time with it. I was looking for the Berlin I experienced in 2004, but how could that be when the story takes place in 1980s Berlin? And despite the fact that I drink up every piece of Berlin history I can get my hands on, I didn't feel the spirit of my beloved city in this story. Again, why would I? It was a different time and place.

But also, I just wanted to feel the city more in this story. When you have such a strong setting like Berlin, the city should almost be another character, much like I felt Prague was in Laini Taylor's Daughter of Smoke and Bone. It should be so vivid that you feel like you are there, and I didn't feel that sense of place I was longing for. And that's precisely why it's difficult for me to review this book objectively.

But despite my difficult experience with this book, I want to thank Beth Kephart for writing it. I think the Cold War is just now starting to become an era of history authors are beginning to explore and I think Berlin is a goldmine of fictional - and true! - stories just waiting to be told in young adult literature. Even though I didn't connect with the story as much as I would have liked, I will still recommend it to people and hope that they connect with it. Maybe it will even inspire people to visit and fall in love with the city the same way I did.

Read my blog post from 2009 celebrating the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall:
Remember, Remember the 9th of November.



Going Over by Beth Kephart
Expected Publication: April 1, 2014
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Pages: 262
Genre: Historical Fiction
Audience: Young Adult
Disclosure: ARC acquired at NCTE convention 

Whimsical Berlin

Berlin is my absolute favorite city in the world. I would visit it every year if I could afford to. Here is just one more reason why it is the awesomest city on earth: A "Fast Lane" on the way down to the Alexanderplatz U-Bahn station. Despite its bleak history, it's good to see that Berlin doesn't take itself too seriously.




Originally seen on the National Geographic's Intelligent Travel Blog

Remember, Remember the 9th of November

Twenty years ago today the world watched the Iron Curtain unravel when The Wall came down in Berlin. On the eve of my tenth birthday, I wasn't old enough to understand why there was a wall coming down, but I did know that whatever the reason, this was a big moment in the history of the world.

Fast forward fifteen years later, I was living in Germany with my husband when we visited Berlin for the first time. I couldn't believe what a youthful, vibrant spirit this city possessed given its oppressive past. There is an interesting dichotomy of lifestyle in Berlin. People have moved forward while still being reminded on every corner what happened from 1961-1989.

Those first few minutes in Berlin began a new phase of my life. It was there that I realized how little I actually learned in school. I didn't understand the significance of studying history until I walked the streets of a city that skitters on the border of the past and the present. Textbooks can never make you feel history; in an attempt to be objective and non-biased, they take away any sort of feeling of desire and urgency to understand WHY. When you go to Berlin, you can't help but understand because the WHY is everywhere.

Berlin quickly became my favorite city on earth. I've been there three times, and each time I go I learn something new. It's been extremely difficult for me to explain and pinpoint my love for this city, but I think I can now attempt to do so.

When boys in my social studies classes talk about loving history, for most of them it's because they love learning about wars, especially World War II. But to me, The Cold War is more exciting to study because it was all about the suspense, the possibility of going to war. Here you had these two superpowers, two differing ideals, ready to go to battle to fight for their honor.

But the near 30 year showdown in Berlin didn't end in war. The people of East Germany and all of the communist puppet states of Europe could see past the propaganda and understand that their government was oppressive. And instead of a war, the Iron Curtain unraveled by the will of the people to tear it down. People power, not weapons, is what caused that wall to fall.

So twenty years later, Berlin thrives and progresses while still managing to hold hands with the past. You never have to worry about people forgetting to remember what happened on the 9th of November. And despite not being there today in body, I am there in spirit. Even though I've never lived in Berlin, I still feel like I, along with John F. Kennedy can say, "Ich bin ein Berliner."