Book Descriptions
for Wolf by Wolf by Ryan Graudin
From Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)
As a child, Yael was subjected to Nazi medical experimentation attempting to physically transform subjects into the ideal Aryan. Her hair gradually turned blonde, her eyes blue. But Yael also discovered she could take on the appearance of other women and girls at will, a secret that was her means of escape from the concentration camp. Ten years have passed in this alternate history sci-fi hybrid, and Yael is at the center of a plot to assassinate Hitler. The Axis powers—Germany and Japan—hold an annual motorcycle race that crosses their two empires. In 1955, a young woman named Adele Wolf won. In a rare public appearance, Hitler danced with Adele at the Victor’s Ball. Now Yael has been training for a year to pose as Adele, win the race, dance with Hitler, and assassinate him. A novel that hurtles at a breathtaking pace alternates between chapters chronicling Yael’s progress in the race—complicated by the unexpected entry of Adele Wolf’s twin brother, Felix, who is trying to convince her to quit and come home, and the unexpected relationship between Adele and another champion, Luka Löwe—and her past, full of hard lessons and aching, poignant loss. Dirty tricks and sabotage are expected among contestants, and alliances are often the only way to make it to the next checkpoint. But whom can Yael trust? The relationships are complex and satisfying, with all of the characters drawn with greater and greater subtlety as the novel races toward a shocking conclusion. (Age 13 and older)
CCBC Choices 2016. © Cooperative Children's Book Center, Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison, 2016. Used with permission.
From the Publisher
From the author of The Walled City comes a fast-paced and innovative novel that will leave you breathless.
Her story begins on a train.
The year is 1956, and the Axis powers of the Third Reich and Imperial Japan rule. To commemorate their Great Victory, they host the Axis Tour: an annual motorcycle race across their conjoined continents. The prize? An audience with the highly reclusive Adolf Hitler at the Victor's ball in Tokyo.
Yael, a former death camp prisoner, has witnessed too much suffering, and the five wolves tattooed on her arm are a constant reminder of the loved ones she lost. The resistance has given Yael one goal: Win the race and kill Hitler. A survivor of painful human experimentation, Yael has the power to skinshift and must complete her mission by impersonating last year's only female racer, Adele Wolfe. This deception becomes more difficult when Felix, Adele's twin brother, and Luka, her former love interest, enter the race and watch Yael's every move.
But as Yael grows closer to the other competitors, can she be as ruthless as she needs to be to avoid discovery and stay true to her mission?
Her story begins on a train.
The year is 1956, and the Axis powers of the Third Reich and Imperial Japan rule. To commemorate their Great Victory, they host the Axis Tour: an annual motorcycle race across their conjoined continents. The prize? An audience with the highly reclusive Adolf Hitler at the Victor's ball in Tokyo.
Yael, a former death camp prisoner, has witnessed too much suffering, and the five wolves tattooed on her arm are a constant reminder of the loved ones she lost. The resistance has given Yael one goal: Win the race and kill Hitler. A survivor of painful human experimentation, Yael has the power to skinshift and must complete her mission by impersonating last year's only female racer, Adele Wolfe. This deception becomes more difficult when Felix, Adele's twin brother, and Luka, her former love interest, enter the race and watch Yael's every move.
But as Yael grows closer to the other competitors, can she be as ruthless as she needs to be to avoid discovery and stay true to her mission?
Publisher description retrieved from Google Books.