The Boys Who Challenged Hitler: Knud Pedersen and the Churchill Club

Hoose (Moonbird) vividly recounts the true story of the courageous and brazen teens who inspired the Danish resistance movement in WWII. Angered and embarrassed by his nation’s lack of opposition to the German invasion, 15-year-old Knud Pedersen, his older brother, and a few classmates formed the secret Churchill Club (named for the British prime minister they admired). For five months in 1942, club members committed daring acts of sabotage, often from their bikes and mostly in broad daylight (“Arson became our game. We took to carrying a small quantity of petrol with us... stuffing the canister in a school bag ”). Hoose’s narrative alternates with Pedersen’s verbatim recollections (taken from a weeklong interview with him in 2012). Though readers initially may have trouble knowing when Pedersen’s quotations end and the author’s segues begin, this gripping story quickly gathers momentum, and the shifts between narrators flow smoothly. Archival photos break up the text, while an epilogue details what happened to each young resister after his imprisonment and the war’s end. A bibliography and source notes conclude this inspiring account. Ages 12–18. (May)