Refugee
Alan Gratz
More essential reading from Alan Gratz
War Games
by Alan Gratz
Alan Gratz takes young readers to the 1936 Berlin Olympics, where a twelve-year-old's view of the Games turns into a heist story set beneath the Nazi regime's polished surface.
What It's About
War Games is a middle-grade historical novel by Alan Gratz, the author of Refugee and Prisoner B-3087. Its main character, Evie, is twelve and goes to Berlin for the 1936 Summer Olympics. The trip shows her the gap between the friendly face Nazi Germany put on for foreign visitors and the fear and persecution ordinary Germans were living with. As she grows more troubled by what she sees, she ends up planning to rob a Nazi bank with two other Olympic athletes.
The 1936 Games are a strong setting for a young reader's introduction to this period. The Nazi government used the event as international propaganda and briefly hid some of its open antisemitism while the world was watching. A story built around an Olympic visitor lets readers notice what is being concealed at the same pace the main character does. Gratz is known for short chapters, quick pacing, and plain prose that keeps reluctant readers going, and the heist plot points to the same page-turning approach.
This page is based mainly on the book's description, so the specifics of how the story unfolds are not covered here. Gratz's earlier books tend to be both exciting and serious, using suspense to lead children into difficult history. Readers who liked his other novels, or who enjoy sports stories and adventure, will likely find this an easy book to start.
Read this if you…
- are a middle-grade reader, or shopping for one, who likes fast-paced historical adventure
- enjoyed Alan Gratz's other novels such as Refugee, Allies, or Prisoner B-3087
- want an accessible way into the 1936 Berlin Olympics and the early years of Nazi Germany
Skip it if you…
- want a detailed, strictly factual history of the 1936 Olympics rather than a novel built around a heist
- prefer slow, quiet literary fiction over plot-driven suspense
Key Ideas
- 1
Propaganda versus reality
The 1936 Olympics were famously staged to make Nazi Germany look modern, welcoming, and peaceful. Putting a young visitor at the center of that event lets the novel examine what it means to see past a carefully managed image. Readers are invited to ask what governments hide, and why it is worth noticing when something looks too clean.
- 2
Young people choosing to act
Gratz often writes about children forced into hard choices by history. Here, the decision to plan a theft from a Nazi bank turns Evie from a witness into someone who takes action. The book seems to ask how much responsibility a person, even a young one, has once they understand what is going on.
- 3
A heist inside historical fiction
Combining a caper plot with a serious historical setting gives the story steady forward motion. The heist provides suspense and a clear goal, while the background of persecution keeps the stakes grounded. This blend is a big part of why Gratz's books work for kids who don't usually pick up history.
- 4
Sports and politics colliding
With fellow Olympic athletes among the characters, the novel can explore how competition, national pride, and politics became tangled in Berlin. It offers an accessible way into a larger question that still comes up: whether sporting events can ever be separated from the governments that host them.
Limitations
Pairing a heist plot with Nazi-era history may require readers to accept some dramatic license, and adults looking for precise historical realism may find a twelve-year-old's involvement in a bank robbery a stretch. Gratz's fast style favors momentum over deep characterization, a criticism sometimes made of his other books. Because the story is told from one young outsider's point of view, it can only show part of the period. Teachers and parents may want to add nonfiction for fuller context. This page relies mostly on the publisher's description, so details of the book's execution are unconfirmed.
Questions Readers Ask
- What age group is War Games by Alan Gratz for?
- Like most of Gratz's novels, it is written for middle-grade readers, roughly ages 9 to 13, with a twelve-year-old main character. It deals with Nazi persecution, so sensitive younger readers might benefit from talking it over with an adult, but it is aimed at kids rather than teens or adults.
- How does War Games compare to Refugee?
- Refugee follows three children across three time periods and focuses on displacement. War Games, going by its description, concentrates on one setting, the 1936 Berlin Olympics, and adds a heist plot. Both appear to share Gratz's trademark mix of suspense and serious history, so fans of one will probably enjoy the other.
- Is War Games based on a true story?
- It is historical fiction. The 1936 Berlin Olympics and the Nazi regime's use of the Games as propaganda are real history, but Evie and the bank heist are presented as an invented story set against those events. Readers interested in the facts can follow it with nonfiction about the Berlin Games.
- Published
- 2025
- ISBN
- 9781338736106
- Difficulty
- beginner
- Category
- Children's Books
Book details and cover from Google Books.
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