Rise of the Berlin Wall sets stage for Iola Reads selection

The fall Iola Reads book selection is “A Night Divided” by Jennifer Nielsen. 

The upper elementary/middle school level book is about Gerta, a girl in East Berlin who finds her family suddenly divided by the Berlin Wall. Her father and middle brother, who had gone west in search of work, cannot return home. 

Gerta knows it is dangerous to watch the wall, yet she can’t help herself. She sees the East German soldiers with their guns trained on their own citizens; she, her family, her neighbors and friends are prisoners in their own city.