Summary

The Boy Who Dared, by Susan Campbell Bartoletti, is a unique work of fiction in that it occurs in the past, present and even future. This first chapter sets the tone and circumstances of the story-telling. The third-person narrative begins in the present day of 1942, twenty-four years after the end of The Great War, or World War I. It is also three years after World War II began, when Germany invaded Poland in 1939.

In October of 1942, it is day 264 of Helmuth Hubener's imprisonment within Plotzensee prison in Berlin, Germany. The sparse and humble prison environment features only a small stool, scrawny table and a wooden-planked bed with no mattress. The only other object in the room is a shivering and trembling Helmuth, who realizes it is Tuesday ... and the prison's executioner works on Tuesdays.

Bartoletti's book contains more...