1.5 stars.

The Girl with the Red Balloon by Katherine Locke is a book I have been anticipating for a while, long before it had a cover. Time travel? Magic balloons that save people? German history? Sign me up! However, I finished the book feeling pretty disappointed.

First, the positives. I loved how The Girl with the Red Balloon was grounded in history - in two different time periods. Once Ellie has been whisked back to 1988 East Berlin by grabbing the string of a red balloon, the book is predominantly set there - a time when there was a Wall dividing East Germany from West Germany, a time of oppression and practically imprisonment. It was shocking and disturbing to see how the people of East Berlin were treated by the volkspolizei (the police) and the stasi (State Security). People who tried to escape into West Berlin any number of ways were killed if caught. There was no freedom, and the people lived in a state of fear. It's so hard to believe that this was less than 30 years ago. I was born before the Wall came down - this oppression and the freedom that fallowed in 1989 was taking place while I was a baby. It's just difficult to grasp that this happened in my lifetime; reading about it, it was so oppressive it felt like it belonged to another time, not my time. And I feel terrible that I know almost nothing about it. What I know about the East Berlin Wall I've learnt from this book. And the fear, the constant feeling of being watched, the danger that the characters could never really escape simply by living in East Berlin was palpable.

The second time period is 1941 - 1942, where we follow Benno, a Jewish German teenager who, along with his family, is sent to Łódź Ghetto in Poland, during the Holocaust. There, they have to work to manufatcure supplies needed for the Nazi army. They were kicked out of Germany by the Nazis, and were now forced to work for the Nazis. Reading about the Ghetto was so upsetting. It was so overcrowded, many people were ill and there was no medication, they had to work long hours, and they were fed a thin soup once a day, with a loaf of bread to last them a week. There was so much death - whether people died from illnesses, starvation, or were killed - and so much misery. It was horrific. It was incredibly hard to read Benno's chapters, even though they were fairly short, and few in number compared to the others.

It was the history, the two different time periods, that I loved about this book. But the story itself was such a let down to me. The chapters set in 1988 East Berlin are dual narrated by Ellie, the time traveller, and Kai, a Romanichal who is working for the Schopfers - the balloon makers, those who use magic to create balloons to help people get over the Wall - as a Runner, those who help the Passengers get their balloon and get over. Kai bumps into Ellie upon her arrival, and tries to help her, along with the Schopfers, try to work out how to get her back home, and why she came in the went back in time in the first place. I can tell you very little about either character, it's all about what's happening now. For Kai, I kind of understood; he lives a dangerous life, and is doing it to keep his little sister, Sabina, who has magic, safe from those who want to use her. He doesn't really have much time for the things he enjoys, and even if he did, he lives in East Berlin, where you do all you can not to draw attention to yourself. Ellie, on the other hand, a girl from our time, I would have expected to know more about than that she doesn't like clubbing. I can tell you that she's Jewish (as is Locke, making this book #OwnVoices), that she hates that practising her faith in East Berlin is illegal, and how she has to do so in secret, that her grandfather is a German Jew who who was around during WWII, and who hates everything about Germany... but I can't tell you anything much about her as a person. What she likes, what she doesn't like. Nothing. Because of this, not really getting to know Ellie or Kai, I didn't feel any connection to them, so I didn't really care about them. As I said, it was terrible to watch them live in the world they lived in, and that bothered me, but I didn't really care about them as people. There is also a romance between the two of them, but how that came about, I really don't see. Suddenly they were attracted to each other out of nowhere, it seemed. And granted, they spent more time together than we actually get to see, but with both having pretty much no personality, I just couldn't see it. So I didn't believe it. It just really didn't work for me.

Then there's the fantasy side to the story. I have so many questions, and no answers. So people who have magic can create magic by writing. How do they have magic? How do they know they have magic? Without writing, how does the magic manifest? And how does writing mathematical equations work? Because that's it, writing complicated mathematical equations makes something magic - like balloons. But how? Why? What are the mechanics of this magic? And why balloons? Seriously, no-one ever asks or discusses why balloons are used. Why not shoes or hats or whatever else? Why balloons? Using blood from the Passengers to write the equations onto the balloons means the balloon will only work for that Passenger. Ok, fine - but why? What if you don't use their blood? What does using their blood actually do to the magic? None of these questions are answered! We're just told that some people are magic, and those magic people can create magic balloons, and those magic balloons can help people escape oppression. That is it. We're just expected to accept it and carry on. How am I supposed to believe in what is happening, believe it is possible, if I am not told how or why?

And if not knowing the characters and not understanding how the magic works isn't bad enough, nothing happens for such a long time. Ellie is put in a safe house, and she has to wait until the magic can be worked out to take her back. She has to wait for forged papers before she can leave the house. And when she does, she goes to a rooftop, or a park or occasionally the Schopfers workshop, but nothing is actually happening during this time. Except for that one other time traveller turns up, but he's dead. Which leaves everyone with questions, understandably, and some dread, because more illegal magic, and someone in their midst who is up to no good. But then more nothing. As I said, I really loved the history we're told about, but when most of the book is set inside a safe house, we don't get to see as much of how oppressive things are as you would expect. And then things do start happening, and they happen rather quickly, and things become quite predictable. And once the climax is over, it goes back to nothing. Oh, decisions need to be made, and they will be, and then they are, but they're not acted on for ages, and it's just more nothing until something is worked out, and then it's over.

I just didn't like this book. All the emotion I felt came from the history of the book, but that doesn't save the story. A story with characters I didn't get to know, a romance I didn't feel, magic that wasn't explained, and a plot where nothing happens for far too long. And I feel so disappointed because this book sounded so good and I was so looking forward to reading it! And it's turned out to be such a let down. However, there are people who loved this book, so do read some other reviews before deciding whether or not you will read The Girl with the Red Balloon.

Thank you to Albert Whitman via NetGalley for the eProof.

The premise of this book is what drew me in originally. I mean there are time-traveling balloons, how does that not hook you? I'm such a sucker for books that involve time-traveling. I expected this book to lean more on the adventurous side, but it was one that was all about the characters. For once, I was not mad about it.

Even though this book is only 256 pages, it tackles a variety of tough topics such as antisemitism, racism, genocide, what it's like to live in totalitarian regime, and more. I applaud the book for not only tackling these subjects, but also not romanticizing them. It treats the situation our characters find themselves in in a very real, dark way. I think the reason it is able to do this so well is because of the character development.

This is a very character driven book. It is told in three different perspectives: Ellie, our accidental time-traveler; Kai, the Romani boy she meets upon arriving in East Berlin; and Benno, a Jewish teenage boy living in Germany during the Holocaust. All three story-lines interconnect to create a full picture. There is also Mitzi, who doesn't get her own POV, but is definitely an integral part of the stories.  I loved all four of our main characters, and really felt like I knew them inside and out by the end of the story. The different perspectives allowed you to see the character from all angles.

Character driven books are very hit or miss with me, as I definitely prefer books with intricate plots. However, I didn't mind the slow plot as much here, because I found the characters so interesting. Part of the reason why they were so interesting was because they all came from different walks of life. Ellie is a Jewish teenage girl who accidentally travels back in time thanks to a red balloon and finds herself in a place where practicing her religion is illegal. Kai is a Romani teen from London, who moves to East Berlin to protect his sister. Mitzi is a German teenage girl who was kicked out of her house, because she is a lesbian. Then there's Benno who is a Jewish teenager that we watch live through the Holocaust. Each of them share the similarity of being forced to survive in a world that does not accept them. Not only are their backgrounds and stories intriguing, but their personalities just leap off the page. It's hard not to fall in love with them.

Another thing that I really loved in this book, was it's theme of faith. You don't often read about YA characters who are religious or see religion talked about. I liked that it was a part of the conversation here. Both Ellie and Benno are Jewish, and each have a different relationship with their own religion. It was interesting to read about each of their own views on religion and how they differed. I should mention that none of this came across as preachy.

Some other things I loved, was exploring East Berlin through the lens of our characters. Since this is a multi-perspective story, you got to see East Berlin from different perspectives which was cool. The romance in this book was also very solid. I was definitely swooning over our male lead. I also really enjoyed the writing style. There were a few issues I had with the book though.

The biggest problem I had was with the plot. As I stated before, the plot was a little slow for me. I didn't mind it so much, because the characters were so solid. However, the mystery plot line could have been much stronger. I thought that it needed more tension and could have been executed better. The reveal was surprising, but could have been much more shocking had the whole plot line been better developed. I was underwhelmed by the plot for the most part, which was a little disappointing because of the premise.

I will say, that there is a moment where the stakes are raised in an extremely effective way. However, it was only one moment. I wish that the rest of the whole mystery plot line was handled as well as that moment.

I also wanted to know more about the magic system. While it did make sense, I just wanted more information on everything and see it happen more on the page. I wanted to learn more about the inner workings of the balloon factory, the magic system, and basically everything. There are definitely some unanswered questions at the end of the book, and I hope we get an answer one way or another.

Overall, I really enjoyed reading The Girl with the Red Balloon. I absolutely adored the characters, and liked that the book went to some dark places without holding back. I finished the book only wanting more, especially with that ending. I hope we eventually finds out what happens next! If you enjoy character driven novels, I definitely recommend picking it up!

Ellie grew up hearing stories from her grandfather (who’s a Jewish survivor of the Holocaust & WWII) about how he was saved from a death camp by a girl with a red balloon. So when Ellie visits Germany, as part of a school trip, she sees a red balloon and decides to take a picture with it! What she doesn’t know is, that this balloon is magical, and it transports her back in time to East Germany, where red balloons are used to save people like Ellie’s grandfather, and take them over the Berlin Wall.

Back in 1988 East Berlin, there’s a “secret society” that uses magic and red balloons to transfer people to the west, where they can be safe. I LOVED the concept, it’s simple yet there’s so much behind it! I would have loved to read more about how this started or at least more information to understand it. It seems that Ellie understood this better than me! She starts to adapt quickly when she travels back in time! As an outsider (American from the future), Ellie was constantly in hiding and in danger. She starts to work on her German to try to blend in, but we all know that isn’t as easy as it sounds…

THERE’S ROMANCE IN THIS BOOK AND IT KILLS ME TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS! I don’t want to talk about it or get too mucho into it because I don’t want to spoil it, but I think the romance is what hurt me the most through the story. It’s just so sweet, kind, friendly, and real! I want to protect them. *cries*

The topics in the story are so important and relevant to all time periods! You’ll find racism, war, genocide, the holocaust, and a loooot more. I loved the mix between magic, science and math to explain how the balloons and time-travel is caused.

Another thing I loved about this book is that it shows us that ONE person and/or ONE decision can change the course of history. Magic or no magic, we have the power to change the world. I believe this is an important message we need to send, especially with everything that’s going on in the world right now… we shouldn’t give up. We have the power to change things, even if it takes time to do so.

An important part of the story –for me- is how Ellie has to deal with “restraining herself” from affecting the future. She wants to help, she wants to be useful, and she knows that the Berlin Wall is going to fall, but she also sees that all of these people are suffering and she wishes she could do something about it! Ellie is such a vulnerable yet strong character. I could relate to her so much!

It’s such an interesting, beautiful, and somehow… it’s also a dark story. I NEVER felt like I was reading a historical fiction book.

I don’t think there’s words to describe how beautiful this story is. I know I said this before, but I REALLY am not a fan of historical fiction, so yeah, picking up this book was a bit of a challenge (initially) for me. But just know that this story reads like a magical -time travel- contemporary with historical elements. It reads so different from what I’ve tried before, and it’s definitely on the heavier side of what YA fiction is, which I also enjoyed. So if -like me- you are not a fan of the historical genre, this book is a great place to start!

Overall Rating: 4.0 stars

The Girl with the Red Balloon quickly became one of my favorites of the year. Yes, there are so many things in here that are painful to read, several that made me cry, many that brought hope and a better understanding of Berlin, The Holocaust, and everything that can be too difficult to read but must be read pertaining to that time and the years after.

 This novel was so well written and was made even more memorable and I became emotionally invested with all the characters that filled the pages. Kai is the brooding guy (for good reason) who loves with a passion, knowing that every single moment is precious and every minute could be his last. There was Ellie who learned and grew so much more after having traveling back into that time, the hardest thing she's ever had to do. 

If those two leading characters weren't enough to make this novel a fave, there is also Mitzi who is the toughest person they could have fighting by their side, as well as Kai's sister Sabina who is very important to the future of those within these pages. None of them have an easy life, far from it, but they stay strong because they have each other and the hope that magic will change things, hopefully for the better for many.

That's where the red balloons come in and everything they meant to the story. Magic exists in this universe, where there is more hope than ever imaginable. It's how Ellie finds herself in the past, going through the fears and worries that many had to endure and painfully leave that world with. This isn't a fairy-tale story though, of salvation and peace, it is only partial truths and that was intensely painful to read, but I left me feeling more blessed and thankful for what I have now. 

Even with several of those pages that I couldn't find solace within, even with the heartbreaking recounting of Benno's (another important character to the story) life, throughout those harrowing years of his existence, I appreciated everything that was said and shown. Something like this should never be forgotten, their hardships, their lives, it should be remembered, so that we as a whole never allow something as gruesomely brutal to happen again in any lifetime. 

This novel makes you have all feels possible, of love, sadness, of joy, and wonder, of hope, and so many more. Magic though, as distressing as this book could be, gave it that enchanting vibe that allowed hope that should have been, a way to be free from such an appalling way of life that should never have happened. Even though there wasn't many happily ever afters at the end of this world, it was more truthful and full of meaningful moments. More appreciation for it than if it had been left perfectly wrapped with a pretty bow on top. I'm absolutely adding a copy to my shelves. 

***I received this copy from Albert Whitman Company via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.***

It is a tale where magic and realism meet and create a great story of hope. The time travel component is executed really well and I can’t wait for the next book. There is a romance going on and I appreciate that it was not much of the focus. All in all, a bit dark than I expected yet an enthralling read.

"We are strange, sometimes, in the ways we choose to bear witness"

* * * *
4 / 5

I wouldn't call myself a history nerd, but I would like to think that I have a reasonable understanding of a good chunk of European history. The Iron Curtain and the Berlin Wall, however, have drifted under my radar - possibly because I've never been to Berlin but also perhaps because it's so recent, more recent than I had thought, such that it is less likely to become a dinner conversation and is more of a hushed memory. The Girl With The Red Balloon is a beautifully written and magical (in more ways than one) novel that I implore you to read.

"A new language forming from her mouth, even as her hands wrote out an equally strange one and made magic of it"

It's actually quite a short novel, yet it packs an emotional punch and spans three time periods. We have Ellie Baum, a sixteen year old girl who lives in the present, or at least she did; on a school trip to Berlin, Ellie grabs hold of a red balloon in order to pose in a photograph for her grandad who claims that a balloon helped him escape the concentration camps during WWII, and is transported to East Berlin, 1988. There she meets Kai and Mitzi, who recognise the balloon she is holding and get her somewhere safe; after all, East Berlin at night with rudimentary German at best and no papers is a dangerous place.

Kai and Mitzi are Runners. They work for two, for want of a better word, magicians who crafts balloons with mathematics and blood that can carry people over the wall. Runners keep the passengers safe beforehand and essentially do all of the grunt work, but something is going wrong: time travellers are turning up dead, red balloons clutched in hand, and Kai's sure he's being watched. This main story is interrupted and bound together by a story set in 1941, that of a young Jewish boy called Benno in Lodz Ghetto. The plot itself is captivating, winding together stories of hope, of history, of magic, of death, of racism (Kai is a dark-skinned Roma), of sexuality (Mitzi is gay), and of family.

"Magic and balloons," I whispered, shivering from the cold and the dark. "And Walls and time"
Kai's voice was low and sad. "The things that get us out and the things that keep us in"

The characters are also fantastic and the three voices of the book, Ellie, Kai, and Benno, are all easily distinguishable. Understandably, Ellie spends a fair amount of the start of the book in states of shock and making a few stupid decisions, but she is a soft, loving girl who I was fond of. Kai is driven by a desire to protect his younger sister, Sabina, who is being hunted by various people because of the magic in her veins. Then we have Mitzi, who I really wish we had more of. I was sensitive to and moved by Benno's story and saw how it was necessary to the narrative, but I did find it disrupted the flow, to flick between 1941 and 1988 constantly, and I think I would have rather the book focused specifically on the Berlin Wall by replacing Benno's narrative with bits by Mitzi. My other complaint is that I thought that the ending was a bit of a cop-out: if we had had another couple of chapters, the book could have well been wrapped up as an amazing stand-alone.

Overall, I highly recommend The Girl With The Red Balloon to those who might not normally read historical books, to those, like me, who want to explore a slightly different area of German history, and to those that love an inventive, magical plot.

For Ellie Baum, being in Berlin on a school trip is little unsettling: she’s grown up listening to tales from her grandfather, who escaped from a death camp in 1942. She loves her grandfather, but his stories don’t always make sense. Like the ones of the balloons carrying people to safety. She’s heard his stories, she just doesn’t believe them. Until she catches the string of a red balloon, and ends up in East Berlin in 1988, before the Berlin Wall fell.

Stranded in the midst of an oppressive regime, Ellie meets Kai, one of the Runners who help balloon passengers escape over the wall. But no one knows what happened to Ellie’s balloon; they just know its real Passenger is dead. With the help of Kai and Mitzi, Ellie must unravel the mystery of her time travel if she’s ever to return to her own time. But someone want to use time travel to change history. And that person doesn’t care who has to die to do so.

At first, I wasn’t too sure about this book and Ellie herself, but I ended up really loving it. This is such a unique concept, and I’ve personally not read much—if anything—set in East Berlin while the Wall was still up. The tale of Ellie’s grandfather is just as enthralling as Ellie’s is, and Kai and Mitzi are so intriguing I wanted to know much more about them. A very compelling book, set in a bleak time in history.

The Girl with the Red Balloon is Katherine Locke’s first YA novel.

(Galley provided by AW Teen via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.)

Actual rating: 4.5/5

Whether or not Ellie was meant to be there at that time and place remains to be seen. It could have been an amazing coincidence that she traveled to Germany to be just in time to be there when the red balloon ‘malfunctioned’ and propelled itself down to the future.

The story eventually revealed why Ellie was whisked back in time and why it was possible; still the timing itself. For all we know, Ellie could not have go with her class on their field trip.

Ellie, Kai, and Mitzi may have been the main characters but I really didn’t see much in them, no matter how heart-tugging their individual narratives supposed to be. Or how there was much fluff between Ellie and Kai even though it made me giggly. There are three I would love their stories to be expanded:

1. I was more interested in Ashasher’s story, not only for the feathers around his head but he had this air about him that reminded me of a cross more serious and broody Howl and an eccentric monk in one of those training montages. What’s your story, you feathered Gandalf?

2. The glimpses of Benno’s, Ellie’s grandfather, life before, during and after his life at the concentration camps were intriguing and insightful. I would love to read more about him.

3. And I couldn’t forget about Felix. He might have had some hidden agenda, working for the higher-ups and all; he might be a right bastard; but he might play an anti-hero role in a book to come. *crosses fingers*

The risk with writing historical fiction and time travel, combined, is to find a way that the characters, whether or not they’re special snowflakes, don’t get to mess with history and time. There’s so much one can do about time travel, special powers, and destiny until you spit on common sense and just put in a ‘Duh, it’s because of magic.’

The Girl with the Red Balloon tells of a historical/time-travel story that knows the intricacies of time. It does not put out an MC who is essential to be in that particular time to influence big events but, instead, focuses on what it sets out to do: telling the tale of the girl with the red balloon and setting the domain of the balloonmakers.

And the author writes in beautiful prose.

.The premise of the balloons drew me in, but the relationships between the characters kept me glued to the book. I'm sucker for found family in fiction, and the relationship between Ellie, Kai, and Mitzi both warmed my heart and made me want more at the same time.

Through magic, the story shines a light on a part of history that I wasn't as familiar with as I had thought. The specifics of that time of history and what it meant for the people there is often a small footnote in the memory of people today. I admire how the book connects different parts of history and the people from those moments to each other.

The magic structure in the story does take a little time to get used to, but it's well worth it once the foundation is laid. It's unique and original in a way that few books I've read recently have been

I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Give me a time travel book and I am there. <i>The Girl with the Red Balloon</i> delivers and I can't recommend it more.

[NOTE: I am not Jewish, so I cannot speak to the Jewish representation. I was recommended the book because of its positive Jewish rep, so I hope I wasn't steered in the wrong direction.]

I haven't seen a book written about the Cold War, specifically about the Berlin Wall. My knowledge is limited to "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" and the graffiti seen on the West Berlin's side of the Wall. I don't know if this is one of the many faults of the American educations system or my own lack of research. Even more so, I didn't realize the parallels between the division between West and East Berlin and the Holocaust. I don't know if this is an extra layer to the story added by the author or if it's something that is discussed regularly and common knowledge outside the U.S.

The time travel aspect of the book was A+. I loved the connection between physics and magic and how the two come together. The use of a red balloon as the savior device is brilliant. It's such a mundane object, but I imagine myself finding red balloons alluring in the future because of this story.

There isn't a lot of action, more sitting around and taking in everyday life. In any other book, I would have found this boring, but I found it intriguing here. It may have been my lack of historical knowledge of this era (which I mentioned above), but I wanted to know more about what everyday life was like and what laws were present then.

My absolute favorite part of this book is the main characters. We have Ellie, a Jewish American student in Berlin for a class trip; Kai, a Romani Runner who is doing this job as a way to help his sister; and Mitzi, a queer German who wants to help her home, but you can tell she has complicated feelings about it. I adore them all so much and I was (unfortunately) surprised there wasn't a cat fight of some kind between Ellie and Mitzi. Instead, we have a rather deep conversation between them and their ancestors' roles in the Holocaust. The fact that Katherine Locke has a Romani individual made my day. It's difficult to find Romani characters who are treated with respect and I adored Kai and his characterization. Also, I have a lot of love for his inclusion in the group since it's rarely noted how Romani people were targeted during the Holocaust.

Overall, I absolutely loved this book and can't wait for its sequel to see what happens next.

I had only heard good things about this book and several people I trust couldn't stop gushing about it. Sadly I was disappointed.

l liked Ellie well enough. She was sort of bland and I struggled to connect to her. I didn't see any of the extraordinary, amazing, and brave traits that everyone else saw. Kai and Mitzi were both intriguing, but also sort of meh. There is a third POV and once I figured out who it was and how it tied together, I skipped most of those chapters because it didn't bring anything to the story for me.

Plot wise, I was just so bored. There wasn't any real build up or tension. It all felt repetitive. I get that due to the time period, there wasn't going to be frivolity and there were pockets of joy and sweetness. I think that's what kept me reading.

Overall, I liked the idea of it, but something just didn't work. I had to force myself to continue because I was hoping for a twist or a spark that would captivate me. Oh and I absolutely hated the ending.

Judging by the high reviews, I'm in the minority, and it just wasn't for me.

**Huge thanks to Albert Whitman & Company for providing the arc free of charge**

I read this a few weeks ago, but it's taken me a while to get around to reviewing it. I've been putting it off, because frankly, it's a really hard book to review. This review is on Goodreads, but will be cross-posted to my blog in the near future.

The thing that makes this such a difficult book to review is that I know I'm not the target audience for it. That is to say, I was aware multiple times that various phrases and scenes would be extremely significant for those with experience of Jewish faith and culture, but I don't have that. The symbolism, while not incomprehensible because it was explained within the narrative, didn't have the same meaning for me as it would for somebody with that heritage.

(For the record, I do have Jewish heritage, but there was a bit of a family rift a couple of generations ago and my branch of it ended up 100% cut off from that side of the family, to the point where my grandma wouldn't even tell the bank her mother's maiden name because it was so obviously Jewish. As a result of her refusal to talk about any of this, and because I never knew any Jewish people at school, I grew up knowing absolutely nothing of Jewish culture. This year, my flatmate was Jewish, and I learned quite a lot from her; without that, I think I would have found this book a little difficult to follow in terms of terminology. But I think most people have at least MET some Jewish folks in their life, particularly if they live somewhere that has a stronger Jewish presence than my area, so that probably wouldn't be an issue.)

I really appreciated these moments in the book because they were part of what made it unique: Katherine Locke has talked on social media about what the book means to her personally, and you could tell. The Jewishness of this book wasn't a veneer slapped on top of a protagonist with a generic set of beliefs and experiences: it was integral.

But I sometimes felt while I was reading a particular passage, "Oh, I bet this means something more that I'm not getting." There were a few phrases in particular that were repeated and which I gathered from elsewhere in the text were from liturgy (is that the right word?), which would have had powerful cultural echoes for the people whose culture they were. And that's not my culture, so I didn't experience those emotional resonances.

This is not meant as a criticism, because I'm totally okay with not being the target audience of every book, and I think there are so many people for whom this would be a really great and unusual experience, to see their culture reflected back at them like this. It just makes it difficult for me to review this and I feel like I need to explain the certain emotional and cultural detachment I consciously experienced while reading it. I did feel stuff! I definitely had a lot of emotions towards the end, because hey, it was an emotional narrative and I get way too invested in books. But it probably wasn't the same as reading it with that cultural background.

As for the rest of it, well, now I have to try and remember how I felt about the plot. It was a little bit mixed for me. It took me a while to get invested, because I didn't really understand what was going on with all the balloon magic and, while it was supposed to be somewhat mysterious, I just found it confusing at first. In some ways, the idea of balloons as the only thing magical in a novel that was otherwise primarily historical felt a little bit too whimsical for me, but it grew on me, especially as the narrative became more focused on the idea of hope and these fleeting glimpses of goodness symbolised by balloons.

I have to admit, I wasn't a huge fan of the romance, but that was less due to any faults with the romance itself and more due to me not being a fan of romance generally. I would definitely have been more on board if Ellie had fallen for Mitzy instead (who is canonically gay so it's not that much of a stretch), simply bacuse almost all romance plotlines interest me more when they're queer.

I spent quite a lot of the book convinced I'd figured out who was behind everything and frustrated that none of the characters seemed to have thought of this -- and then turned out to be wrong, because plot twist. I mean, I wasn't 100% wrong? Like, I was definitely thinking along the right lines? But I was still wrong, so kudos on surprising me because I'm annoyingly good at ruining books for myself by guessing the plot twists in advance.

I also enjoyed the historical details and the depiction of East Germany, but I'm wary of giving too many details of what I liked because I've read a lot of books since finishing this three weeks ago and I don't want to accidentally confuse any of them. ;) But it was clearly something that Locke had researched in detail, and while I know basically nothing so wouldn't pick up on inaccuracies if they were there, it felt authentic to me as a reader.

The one thing that felt a little bit false to me was Ellie, the narrator. She's accidentally time-travelled to the past (though it takes her a really long time to figure this out, but I guess if you were actually in that situation your first thought wouldn't be, "Oh, I must've time travelled," so fair play to her for trying to come up with alternative explanations). She stays there for months. But I rarely got the sense that this was in any way a hardship for her, other than the problems of living in East Berlin. She didn't seem to miss her friends and family particularly, even though she was abruptly and completely cut off from them with no communication. I would have expected her to have more of a reaction to that.

All in all, then, while I found the plot engaging and so on, I didn't feel I really connected with the book on the same level as I might have done had my family not drifted away from its Jewish heritage a couple of generations ago.

Katherine Locke’s The Girl with the Red Balloon is such a gorgeous and moving book that I’m nearly at a loss for words to convey just how good it really is. I finished reading it a few days ago and just can’t stop thinking about it. The Girl with the Red Balloon is not a light read by any stretch of the imagination – it deals with weighty subjects like the Holocaust, racism, homophobia, and what it was like to live behind the Iron Curtain before the Berlin Wall fell. For the most part, it’s a dark and gritty dual time period read that shows how horrific it was for Jews during World War II as well as how difficult it was to live under the eye of a totalitarian regime in 1980’s East Germany. It’s not all darkness and horror though. Katherine Locke uses a hint of magic and a bit of romance to offset all of that darkness. You see, not only is this novel historical fiction that deals with more than one time period. It’s also a time travel novel.

The Girl with the Red Balloon begins in present day Germany where we meet one of our main characters, sixteen year old Ellie Baum, who has traveled there on a class field trip. She sees a red balloon floating nearby while hanging out with her classmates and asks her best friend to take a photo of her with it for her grandfather. It reminds her of a story her grandfather, a Holocaust survivor, always tells her, about how a girl in a purple dress handed him a red balloon when he arrived at a concentration camp during the war, and the balloon floated him out of the camp and to safety.

When Ellie grabs the balloon, however, the unexpected and unbelievable happens. She travels back in time to 1988 and finds herself in East Berlin and in imminent danger! There she is found and led to a safe house by Kai and Mitzi, a Romani gypsy and a German lesbian, who are part of a magical resistance group who uses red balloons to float people over the Berlin Wall and into West Germany. The catch? These balloons, while magical, are not supposed to travel through time. The balloon makers are stumped as to what has happened to bring Ellie to them and are therefore unsure of how to get her back to her own time period. The resistance group vows to keep Ellie safe from the East German police and to do everything they can to find a way to get her home, but when dead time travelers start turning up with red balloons, it becomes clear that someone is experimenting with forbidden dark magic and time travel. Why is someone trying to travel back in time and why are they so willing to do it, even at the expense of innocent lives? If others are dying when they grab these balloons, how was Ellie able to safely travel back in time? It becomes a race against time to stop who is behind this before the bodies start piling up, even if it means Ellie loses out on perhaps her only way back to the future.

LIKES

This is another one of those books where I could just write pages and pages about what I liked. I don’t want to give anything away though so I’m just going to list a few highlights.

The friendship between Ellie and her two protectors, Kai and Mitzi, was one of my favorite parts of the book. These three become fast friends while living in the safe house together, and their chemistry is fantastic. They’re immediately like The Three Musketeers, all for one and one for all. I also loved the diversity that these characters represented – Ellie is Jewish, Kai is Romani, and Mitzi is a lesbian. This diversity further forges a bond between them since all three are considered undesirable in East Berlin during this time frame. The police would love nothing more than to find a reason to arrest them, so they always have each other’s backs.
As I mentioned, there is also a romance in this book and even though on the surface it might sound like somewhat out of place since we already have time traveling, the Holocaust, magical balloons, etc., the romance actually worked well for me. First, it’s not instalove, so yay. No, instead, the relationship develops quite naturally as Kai and Ellie get to know each other better. Kai is kind of dark and brooding at times and he sees Ellie as this softness and light that he needs in his life. Ellie becomes attracted to Kai, not just because he is handsome, but because of how he puts himself on the line trying to help as many people as he can get over into West Germany. Ellie is also touched when she sees how devoted Kai is to his younger sister, Sabina. He would literally do anything to keep Sabina safe and it’s heartwarming to see.

I was incredibly invested in this relationship not just because I liked that it developed naturally and that their two personalities really complimented each other, but also because it just tugged at my heart strings. What happens to their relationship if the balloon makers are able to figure out how to send Ellie back to her own time period? Would she go or would she stay with the man she is falling in love with?

Other highlights for me were the completely unique premise and the major themes of the novel. Seriously, it doesn’t get much more creative than the idea of using magical red balloons to save people. In addition to the unique premise, there were also so many themes that resonated me with as I was reading. With respect to those balloons, I loved the beautiful message that there were heroes everywhere, both during World War II and during the time of the Iron Curtain – people who risked their own safety trying to save as many people as they could. Another darker message that resonated with me as I got further into the story was more of a question of ethics – if a person’s overall intention is good, does that excuse any unethical behavior he or she may engage along the way accomplishing that goal? This was definitely food for thought for me as I was reading.

A final highlight for me was the way the story was presented. It’s presented in alternating chapters from the perspective of Kai and Ellie in 1988 East Berlin and from Ellie’s grandfather, Benno, as a young boy during World War II. I loved how presenting the story this way effectively moves Ellie’s time traveling story forward as well as her relationship with Kai, while at the same time, circling back and showing the origin of the red balloons. Seeing Benno’s horrific experiences in the Jewish ghettos, surrounded by disease and death, served as a poignant reminder that without that red balloon, neither Ellie nor any of her other family members would exist in present day. Ellie literally owes her life to that magical balloon.

DISLIKES/ISSUES

The only real issue I had with this book was that it took me a few chapters to acclimate to the three alternating points of view. I’m not going to call that a dislike because once I got used to it and remembered, I thought it was a beautiful way to tie together what happened with Benno and a red balloon during the war and what happened to his granddaughter when she touches a red balloon over 40 years later.

FINAL THOUGHTS

The Girl with the Red Balloon is a book that I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend to anyone who enjoys historical fiction, magic, time travel, romance, and even mysteries. Not only does it have a little something for everyone, but it’s also just a beautifully written story that will be on your mind long after you read the final pages.

RATING: 5 STARS

Thanks so much to Katherine Locke, Netgalley, and the Albert Whitman Company for allowing me the opportunity to preview an advanced copy of this book. It in no way shapes my opinion of the book.

How do you describe this book ? I'll have a go but may not do it justice.its a time travel book that takes us the reader back in time to a very important time in fairly recent history .I think Ellie the girl with the red balloon is an ok character but maybe I found her a little on the young side for me to fully engage with , having said that I was young once so maybe should have found it easier to go with the flow, I guess I found her obsession with another character Kai a little boring, but the setting and descriptions were wonderful so I am probably being churlish and too picky.I thought the feel of the place and time that the book took us to was very well captured and that is the main thing.I also liked Benno and was fascinated by his story.Overall I think this is well worth a read and is quite a clever book it makes you think and pulls the heartstrings .I would like to thank Netgalley and the publishers for an ARC in return for an honest review.

5/5 Stars

Mixing magic and the harsh realities of history, Katherine Locke has written a consuming story of both darkness and light with her YA debut The Girl with the Red Balloon. It follows Ellie Baum as she's sucked into the past by a simple decision, and I was completely enthralled from start to finish.

Top 10 Reasons to Read The Girl with the Red Balloon

"If you give a girl a red balloon she'll believe in magic and memory."
Ellie Baum is a Jewish-American girl who's grandfather survived the Holocaust. She's passionate and intense even when thrust into dire circumstances.
Kai, my love, is a Romani boy who willingly chooses to move from England to East Berlin to protect his sister. He's reserved and focused on his mission, caring deeply about what he's doing.
This ship sails itself! Seriously these two together was so beautiful. It's slow burn and exquisitely heart warming and heart wrenching at the same time.
The team MVP though is Mitzi.  She's a fierce lesbian lighting up the world even when she's not accepted by her country. Plus she's an amazingly supportive friend.
Multiple POV's and settings! The story is told through the eyes of Ellie, Kai, and Benno and while most of the narrative takes place in 1988 East Berlin, it's also set in the Lodz ghetto.
The exploration of collective memory, how people are shaped by things they never experienced. It also reflects on being influenced by the generations that came before us and how it informs our identity and our place in a community.
Marvelous writing! Honestly Locke wields writing with such force, crafting such excellent scenes that hit right at the soul. Her words are powerful and empowering, invoking intense emotion.
Obviously I adored the use of magic. How the simplest object, a red balloon, could inspire such hope and make a difference.
"If you give a girl a magic balloon she will burn down the world."
Overall Katherine Locke's The Girl with the Red Balloon is a gripping adventure playing out in the past. It's emotional and endearing with characters that wiggle their way into your heart. The narrative is heavy and poignant especially with ongoing current events but was tempered by the whimsy and magic being used. I honestly think everyone should pick this book up!

Katherine Locke’s Girl with the Red Balloon a compelling look at time travel

GIRL WITH THE RED BALLOON, by Katherine Locke, Albert Whitman & Company, Sept. 1, 2017, Hardcover, $16.99 (young adult)


We all know balloons float. We use them to celebrate special occasions, track weather and even transport people to other locations. But what if balloons could do much more? What if they could save people from impending doom? What if they could even transport people through time? Those are the questions behind Katherine Locke’s Girl with the Red Balloon.

Girl with the Red Balloon follows 16-year-old Ellie Baum, who is on a school trip in Germany. When Ellie sees a red balloon bobbing along unattended, she realizes it makes for the perfect photo-op. When Ellie grabs the string, she gets way more than she bargained for. Instead of the perfect shot, she’s transported to 1988 East Berlin.

Alone and afraid, Ellie accepts the help of Kai, the first person she meets there. Luckily for Ellie, Kai knows how she got there — well sort of. Kai is part of an underground group that uses balloons and magic to help people escape over the Berlin Wall. So Kai understands the balloon, but not the time travel. Even the balloon makers aren’t sure how Ellie made the jump.

As Ellie works with Kai and his underground group, two things become clear: everyone wants to help get Ellie home and someone is using dark magic in attempt to change history. Ellie’s not willing to let the past be changed, even if that means sacrificing her future in the process.

Girl with the Red Balloon is an intense and, at times, very dark, book. What makes it work is compelling material — both real and imagined. Not only does Locke take readers to 1988 East Berlin, she also immerses them in 1940s Berlin and Poland. The source material for both these settings is rich and well researched. Then Locke adds in magical elements that create a new reality without obscuring the old.

I found Locke’s choice of a red balloon, rather than black or white for example, to be another strong editorial element. The boldness of color echoes the boldness of the balloons’ travelers and handlers as they fight against regimes. The red stands out in stark contrast to the suffering of Jews in ghettos and concentration camps as well as the oppression suffered by those trapped on the east side of the Berlin Wall.

Girl with the Red Balloon does have a few pacing problems. Early on, I devoured it, but as I came to the second half, I found myself dragging. I still cared about the characters and wanted to know the outcome, but it wasn’t the page-turner I started out with. Luckily, things turned around for me a few chapters later, and I once again found myself racing toward the end.

Girl with the Red Balloon is the first book in a planned series. Locke is currently working on the second novel, which takes place 45 years before the first. The author has said it’s set in the same world with different characters. I’m interested to see where she goes with it. This sort of treatment certainly opens up a lot more possibilities in the future.

This was really good! The premise of the book is really intriguing and I've never heard or read any book like it before which I liked. Time-travel and historical fiction were nicely weaved together too!

Ellie grabs a red balloon in Berlin, Germany in the present and is transported to East Berlin in 1988 before the fall of the Berlin Wall. While there, she discovers magic, mysteries, and people she never thought she'd love.

The strength of the book lies in the interwoven stories--Ellie and Kai's story in East Germany--and the store of Ellie's grandfather during the Holocaust. I really loved the back and forth between the time lines, especially as it was Ellie's grandfather who told her stories about a girl with a red balloon saving him from Chelmno. I loved the history in it and the diversity. Kai and his sister, Sabina, are Romani (Kai refers to himself as Romnichel since they lived in England for so long), and you almost never see any Roma characters in fiction, especially not in a story that deals with the Holocaust. Or see fiction books acknowledging that Roma were murdered in the camps too, along with other groups Hitler saw fit to exterminate. It's clearly well-researched and thought out. I also loved that Kai and Mitzi were touchy best friends--hugs and odd little non-lip kisses--and they were just friends as Mitzi is a lesbian, which was treated as no big deal by the characters in the book. Her family, who she's estranged from, thought it was (since this is 1988 East Berlin), and I really liked that inclusion.

It did take me a little bit to get into the book and the prose itself was lacking a little something for me. I didn't fully feel invested in the characters (except for Mitzi and Ellie's grandfather's chapters), but I think part of that is because Ellie was soon romantically interested in Kai, and I was no shipping it, and I wasn't in the mood for a book with a romance. The explanations for the magic were kinda not there at all, which I pretty much fine with since I can suspend my disbelief well. Also, the ending. I am not a fan of the ending. I do like not knowing. I don't like open endings like this one is.

An intriguing and well-executed premise, but the pacing and prose were a little off for me.

THIS BOOK. just. THIS BOOK!! I'm sorry, but W O W, I am blown away, I am emotional, and I am in desperate need of the next book asap! The writing, the messages, AND THE SWOONY ROMANCE, oh it makes for the PERFECT book.