We Will Not Be Silent

Today the girls and I went to B&N to hear a realtively new author promote his YA book. James DeVita is a local (as in Wisconsin) author/actor/playwright. His new book, The Silenced, is about Marena, a girl who lives in a dystopian society. In Marena's world, the Zero Tolerance Party came into power after the Millenium War to make the people safe again. They had to take away most civil liberties and freedoms in order to accomplish this but at least the people would be safe. However, once society was "safe" again, the freedoms were not given back to the people.

Mr. Devita actually spent most of his time today talking about his inspriation for the book, Sophie Scholl. She (and I must admit that I had never heard of her before today) was a leader of The White Rose, a non-violent student resistance group in Nazi Germany who opposed Hitler's Third Reich. The members of the White Rose, including Sophie and her brother, Hans, distributed leaflets between June 1942 and February 1943. They were eventually caught, tried and executed by beheading -- all for distributing leaflets.

I plan to read this book as well. While it is a YA book, I think it is something that everyone can learn something from. K2 has read an enjoyed many books with similiar themes... The Giver by Lois Lowery, The Shadow Children series by Margaret Petersen Haddix and Cliff McNish's, Silver Series, which is why I thought of her when I first saw this book. She was interested in the book but her interest definitely grew after listening to Mr. DeVita talk today. I will post my thoughts on the book after I finish it.

Here's the trailer that was created for the book...