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The Boys who Challenged Hitler: Knud Pederson and the Churchill Club is a 2015 non-fiction book written by Phillip Hoose. The book recaps the story of the Danish Resistance group during World War II, the Churchill Club, and its leader and founder, Knud Pedersen. The group's rebellious acts not only infuriated the Germans but also sparked a Danish rebellion, releasing the boys from their temporary captivity. Set during the Nazi occupation of Denmark in World War II, The Boys Who Challenged Hitler is the true account of a group of righteously rebellious Danish teens who dared to defy their own government, as well as their deadly captors, to defend their endangered beliefs in humanity and freedom. During world war 2 countless fell defending their land against the germans. Only one country let the Germans waltz right in - this was Denmark and this is where the story begins.The book starts right before Germany invades Denmark in a town called Odesen. On that day Knud Pedersen and his friends didn’t know that one day him and his friends would fall under German rule without any resistance from the people of Denmark who were happy, since they could make more money. Knud Pedersen was deeply ashamed of his nation's leaders for not fighting the German occupation. He and his friends decided to do something. With his friends he started the Churchill Club. Named after Britain's famous leader who didn’t give in. Over the years Knud and his friends rebelled and committed countless acts of treason and sabotage leading to their capture but not before they lit the spark that helped Denmark finally resist the German occupancy.

 The Boys Who Challenged Hitler: Knud Pedersen and the Churchill Club by Phillip Hoose is a young adult (YA) nonfiction book published in 2015. Hoose, who previously received a Newbery Honor for Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice, was inspired to write the book after learning about the Churchill Club on a visit to the Museum of Danish Resistance in Copenhagen. The book is composed of Hoose’s research-based narration of the actions and events surrounding the Churchill Club as well as detailed first-person accounts by Knud Pedersen, a leading figure of the club. Overall I would give this book 7/10 stars since is was detailed but could have explained what happened after the capture a little better. Here is the start of the story that should get every reader intrigued:

“April 9 1940 . It was breakfast like any other until the dishes started to rattle. Then an all alert siren pierced the morning calm and the sky above Odesen, Denmark, thundered with sound .The Pedersen family looked up, suspended above them in close formation was a squadron of dark planes. They were flying anonymously low , no more then three hundred meters above the ground. The black marks on each wing tagged them as German warplanes. Scrapes of green paper fluttered down.”

This book was great to read and I highly recommend it to anyone.

Check out the Boys who Challenged Hitler at NBPL!