General Discussion

Hi! I have a book report due tomorrow and I was wondering if I could get some last minute editing help. I already did a bit, but it feels incomplete. I need at maximum 7 sentences but I have 8 or 9, and I'm not sure how to shorten it. The format is like this ; the first paragraph is a short summary, the second is a review on how the book was. No dead words or to be verbs are allowed.

Im just going to paste it here for you to see:

“We’re a family, Fritz. Half of us are already on the other side. If we’re going to cross, to be together, it has to be all of us,” Gerta says to her brother Fritz as they plan their great escape underneath the Berlin Wall, in the book A Night Divided by Jennifer A. Nielsen. Twelve-year-old Gerta Lowe has her life divided when the Berlin wall comes up overnight with her brother and father (who participated in workers rebellions years ago) on the other side; however, four years afterwards, Gerta’s father begins to send her messages from the West side telling her to dig underneath an abandoned building and tunnel to freedom. The deadline for Gerta’s older brother Fritz to join the army keeps getting closer, and they must escape before Fritz becomes another brainwashed soldier. Gerta, Fritz, and their mother begin to tunnel underneath the wall, racing against Fritz’s deadline. A soviet soldier named Officer Müller and Gerta’s best friend Anna have agreed to come with them and bring their families. Two nights before Fritz must join the army, Gerta discovers her father and brother digging a tunnel towards them. They head through the tunnel, but soldiers follow them in firing a rain of fatal bullets that would have killed Gerta if Officer Müller had not thrown himself in front of her, sacrificing his life. Everyone emerges on the Western side grateful to have survived and for their newfound freedom from the grip of the Iron Curtain.
Yes, I do recommend that others read A Night Divided by Jennifer A. Nielsen. The book was engaging and interesting. It was a page turner because I was always wondering what would happen next such as if someone would betray Gerta or if the tunnel would collapse or if everyone would make it out as they ran across the tunnel in the final chapter. I did enjoy the genre of historical fiction because it seemed so real, and with that, the drama and action were just as believable. The story was extremely believable because of the genre and the fact that the ending, just like reality, cannot be completely happy. Offer Müller dies, and Gerta’s grandmother stays in Eastern Germany (since she lives in the countryside), and Fritz must leave his girlfriend behind. The story of Tunnel 57, a tunnel dug underneath the Berlin wall that helped 57 people escape, shares several similarities with A Night Divided. I would recommend this book to fans of The Book Thief and other World War II books. Overall, I enjoyed this book due to its genre, action, and how realistic the story was, and I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys a thrilling read.


Thanks so much!! :)

@tacodog2470 - I'd shorten it a bit by combining sentences near the end and beginning:

";however, four years afterwards, Gerta’s father begins to send her messages from the West side telling her to dig underneath an abandoned building and tunnel to freedom before the deadline for Gerta’s older brother Fritz to join the army arrives - they must escape before Fritz becomes another brainwashed soldier."

"Yes, I do recommend that others read A Night Divided by Jennifer A. Nielsen; the book was engaging, interesting, and it was a page turner because I was always wondering what would happen next, such as if someone would betray Gerta, if the tunnel would collapse, or if everyone would make it out as they ran across the tunnel in the final chapter. "

I would also argue that it would be alright leaving out the entire sentence, "A soviet soldier named Officer Müller and Gerta’s best friend Anna have agreed to come with them and bring their families." Unless they're crucially important to the story, I'd cut that out since you didn't really bring them up at all, so therefore you can cut Müller out of the sad endings part at the end as well.

@tacodog2470

Not a way to shorten, but paragraphs should be indented, and have a one line gap between them. (Sorry If this sounded rude or patronizing...)

@Wanshu
Thank you SO much! This helped a ton!
@Sssargon
I pasted it in here from the document, that's why it's not indented/spaced correctly. Thanks for helping, though!

;)