I Am Canada: Behind Enemy Lines

In the heat of battle, 18-year-old Sam Frederiksen, a trained gunner from the Prairies, is shot down over France. Trapped behind enemy lines, Sam must negotiate his way through unfamiliar surroundings in order to survive.

His circumstances begin to change for the better when a young boy finds him in the woods. Sam makes the decision to trust this boy and is rewarded by being led to the Allied forces that comprise the Resistance. Here Sam works tirelessly alongside his comrades to sabotage the enemy’s supply lines until one day a traitor leads him into Nazi hands.

Sam finds himself not at a camp for prisoners of war but at a concentration camp called Buchenwald. There he is forced to witness unspeakable horrors that make him question his own humanity. In Buchenwald, Sam quickly realizes that survival is not only a physical struggle but also a mental one.

Behind Enemy Lines: World War II is the fifth instalment in the I Am Canada series from Scholastic Canada. Drawing on the true story of the 142 airmen, 26 of them Canadians, who were sent to Buchenwald in 1944, Carol Matas approaches the subject matter with tremendous honesty and respect. She depicts the reality of war in all its brutality by stepping into its darkest crevices. The picture Matas paints of Sam’s emotional turmoil forces the reader to take pause. When he questions his own morality, Sam is no longer a character in a book but becomes a citizen of the human race. In the end, Matas gives a vivid picture of a little-known piece of Canada’s history and leaves the reader with the powerful thought that others can only break your spirit if you allow them to.

When his brother is shot down over France, Sam is trapped behind enemy lines. He must get back to England to fly more missions but until he can, he works with the Resistance to sabotage Nazi supply lines. But this puts him in even more danger. If he’s caught, he may be executed as a spy.