Drew, an American Army Brat; Matthias, an East Berliner, indoctrinated into the beliefs of Kruschev and communism . The one thing in common they have is they are cousins and a love of music. Told over the course of a year, with pictures corresponding to historical events: the GDR, the building of the Berlin Wall, this was a heart-wrenching historical fiction story. The boys have to learn to trust each other, learn from each other until the wall goes up, possibly tearing their burdening friendship apart. It was interesting to learn so many facts I didn’t know, as I read the side notes and viewed the pictures the author included. It felt like a mini crash course of a moment in history that impacted the world for many years, until the wall fell in 1989. ( )

This is a very emotional story. This story shows how hard it was for people living in East Berlin right before the wall was built and how hard it was for people living in West Berlin to understand why anyone would want to stay in the East. There were a few laughs but there are a lot of tears in the story. I love the photos that are included in the book. These showed how different but also how alike many parts of the world can be. I received a copy of this book from Algonquin Publicity for a fair and honest opinion that I gave of my own free will. ( )