BookTalk

click to enlarge

The Berlin Boxing Club
Robert Sharenow

Find teaching resources
for this book at

In Nazi-era Berlin, it doesn’t matter if Karl Stern never thinks of himself as a Jew—he doesn’t even go to synagogue. That doesn’t matter to the other boys in his school and neighborhood.

Fourteen-year-old Karl is a prodigy cartoonist, and though his cartoons have helped brighten his more Jewish-looking sister Hildy’s days, she still comes under the brunt of the attacks. Desperate, Karl looks for a way to prove himself to his fellow countrymen.

That opportunity comes through his father’s art gallery. Karl’s father manages to make a deal with the boxing legend Max Schmeling when he passes through the gallery—Max will give Karl boxing lessons. Karl finally has the chance he has been waiting for to reinvent himself.

Four years pass, and Karl goes from a scrawny cartoonist into a muscled boxing champion. He’s never lost a round! But as Hitler and the Nazis consolidate their power in Berlin, Max Schmeling