Keyona Davis- A Strong Young Boy in Prisoner B-3087

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Alan Gratz’s Prisoner B-3087 was a great book in my opinion. I feel as though it is the most realistic book that we have read yet this semester. The details that the author gives readers are incredible, and at certain parts of the story I can actually visualize by being a fly on the wall what Yanek is going through. I think that this book is appropriate for adolescents who are in middle school. It is a quick read, and because of the protagonist’s age, students would be able to picture themselves in his shoes throughout the whole story. This book reminded me so much of The Diary of Anne Frank, but I think I just may like this one better. Because this story is told in first person, I feel that it makes it better than it would have been if it was told from someone else’s perspective. I love how Gratz sets this story up where we start off with a protagonist that is just a carefree young boy, then within a few days his whole life changes and he has to adjust.
            In addition, when Yanek is finally on his own in the camps, readers see how brutal and harsh the living conditions that he is in are. It’s as though we see a young boy who sees life as being okay along with his family, and then in a matter of days we have a boy who loses his family, identity, and becomes mentally destroyed and only knows death. On page 74 Yanek states, “There was always a chance that our work would be to dig graves in the woods- and then be shot to fill them.” This statement stuck with me throughout the entire book because it shows how Yanek was going day by day, not knowing whether it would be his last. He was in a concentration camp, doing hard labor that was designed to kill him.
            I think that Gratz intended to talk about several of the harsh situations that Yanek was in to give adolescents something to think about. The situations that the protagonist is in makes you question a lot about yourself and who you are as a person. It would make young readers wonder what they would have done had they been placed in that situation, or wonder why Yanek makes some of the decisions that he does.


Comments

  1. UnknownOctober 25, 2016 at 8:40 PM

    I do agree with you that this is better than Anne Frank, and it makes me wonder if its because boys were treated worse and deemed more useful for work. Also, we get a unique experience from the bar mitvah that we did not get with Anne Frank. I also agree with what you mean about questioning oneself. I'm sure everyone has gone through hardships in life at one point or another. However, reading this book makes you feel like damn my life was a walk in the park. It made me catch myself when I would complain about irrelevant crap like a restaurant running out of my favorite kind of food, and being forced to order something else lol.

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