• Age: 10 to 14
• Grade: 5 to 9

Finalist, White Pine Award

Finalist, Stellar Award

Society of School Librarians International, Honour Book

Manitoba Young Reader’s Choice Award, Honour Book

As a boy growing up in Germany during Hitler’s rise to power, Dieter has been seduced by the pomp and circumstance of war. But as global hostilities intensify, he is called upon to fight for his country in a conflict that he doesn’t fully understand. Now he must run from everything he knows. With most of his family dead, Berlin in ruins, and the Russian army closing in, Dieter can no longer naively cling to his childhood beliefs. The world he is facing is brutal, dirty, and unforgiving. And the most he can hope for is a chance to survive.

In this second instalment of Wandering Fox’s Fields of Conflict series, John Wilson brings history to life for young readers ages twelve and up.

John Wilson was born in 1951 in Edinburgh, Scotland. He did his early growing up on the Island of Skye and in Paisley, near Glasgow. From 1969 to 1974, he attended the University of St. Andrews where he took an Honours B.Sc.. in Geology and never played golf once. He took a position with the Geological Survey of Rhodesia (Zimbabwe). In his two years there, he mapped rocks, dodged land mines and watched the country sink ever deeper into civil war. Shortly before he was due to be called into the army, John retreated back to Britain on his way to the safety of Canada. He settled on Calgary where geology was booming and the only danger was freezing to death in January. In 1979, he moved to Edmonton to take up a post with the Alberta Geological Survey. In 1988 he sold a feature article to the Globe and Mail. This fueled a smouldering mid-life crisis and he took up freelance writing full-time. With some success, John mined the experiences of his travels for articles, journalism and photo essays. He even began to express himself poetically and, with a young family, began writing children's stories. He moved to Nanaimo and then Lantzville on Vancouver Island. John has been widely published by a number of Canadian presses, with his acolades including a shortlisting for the Governor General’s Award.

John Wilson's profile page

“Although students in Grade 6 should be able to understand the exciting and vividly written book, the issues it raises also make it suitable for students in senior grades. It is a superb introduction to the ambiguities and complexities that surround the study of Wolrd War II. It deals thoughtfully with a number of important and throny questions about German life and individual responsibility versus collective guilt during the Nazi era. It realistically describes the instutionalized pre-war anti-Semitism of the Nazis, which led inexorably to Holocaust's death camps. As well, the destruction of Berlin and the vicious battles between SS Panzer units and Canadians and Caen, in 1944, are honestly portrayed.” —CM Magazine

“Equal parts philosophical debate and historical fiction, this book, like Wilson's And in the Morning, presents a compelling and thoughtful story of war that should appeal to a wide range of readers.” —Quill & Quire

"This is an interesting read and will provide much to talk and think about for ages 12-16. "—Marcia Weiss Posner, Jewish Book Council