Behind the Bedroom Wall

Author's Bio:

Laura E. Williams was born in Seoul, Korea, and adopted when she was one and a half. Since then she has lived in Belgium, Hawaii, Ohio, and Connecticut. Always an avid traveler, she has driven across much of America and Canada, visited Russia on a student/teacher exchange, backpacked through most of Europe, worked on a cruise ship in Tahiti, and lived on a sailboat in the Caribbean. Laura now lives in Connecticut where she teaches high school and college English. With over thirty published books, she continues to write every chance she gets.

Quotes:

“May Behind the Bedroom Wall find its way on to the shelf of favorites and into the hands of young people who will shape our future by listening to our past.” —Lois Lowry, Newbery Award-winning author of The Giver and Number the Stars

“It is all too clear that even a reasonable young mind can be warped by a society that has embraced madness as its patriotism. The story is instructive without being didactic, and more suspenseful than a lot of what passes for adult political thrillers.” —Los Angeles Times

“The atmosphere and mood of the [time period] are palpable . . . in a fast moving, believable plot with an inevitable ending.” —School Library Journal

“This struggle is poignant and grips the reader who desperately hopes that Korinna will make the correct choice. Laura E. Williams has produced a well written book that will be loved by middle-schoolers.” —Christian Library Journal

“The groundwork for the change in [Korinna] is well-prepared by the author, so that the reader inevitably grows along with her. A good start toward answering the unanswerable question, how people could have let the Holocaust happen?”— Jewish Observer

“Laura Williams, a writer of skill and conscience, is acutely aware of both the importance of teaching children about the Holocaust and of the impact the story of Anne Frank continues to have on our consciousness. . . . Williams . . . has put a provocative spin on things by portraying not a Jew, but Korinna Rehme, the only child of doting German parents and an enthusiastic member of a Hitler youth group. This focus is deliberately and effectively disconcerting. . . . The truth Williams illuminates goes beyond the tragic particulars of the Holocaust; it is quite simply, that compassion is the most important thing anyone can learn and, in essence, it defines what it means to be human.”—Hungry Mind Review

“Korinna was faced with a dilemma: turn in her parents to be shot or face being a disloyal German herself. Throughout the book, Korinna's view on everything takes a drastic change. Behind the Bedroom Wall is a must-read that will keep you turning pages.” —Caitlin Colkitt, Grade 7, Voices from the Middle