Rise of the Spider

By Michael P. Spradlin

Part of the The Web of the Spider series

A boy confronts rising tensions as his brother falls under the Nazi spell.

4.2/5 Goodreads · 102 ratings

160 pages

$17.99Save 6%

In stock. Also at Amazon or Bookshop.

Bookroo's summary

In 1929 Germany, twelve-year-old Rolf watches in fear as his brother Romer becomes captivated by the Nazi Party's promises. As political tensions rise, Rolf struggles to keep his family from fracturing. When a Jewish business is vandalized, Rolf suspects Romer's involvement. Can he intervene before it's too late?

From the publisher

Witness the chilling rise of Hitler’s Germany through the eyes of a twelve-year-old boy in this first book in the action-packed middle grade series Web of the Spider for fans of I Survived and A Night Divided. 1929, Heroldsberg, Germany. Rolf might only be twelve years old, but he’s old enough to know that things have not been good in his country since the end of the Great War. Half of Germany is out of work, and a new political movement is taking hold that scares him. Every night, Rolf’s father and older brother, Romer, have increasingly heated arguments about politics at the dinner table. And when two members of the new Nazi Party, Hans and Nils, move to town as part of the Hitler Youth, Rolf is uneasy to see how enamored Romer is by their promises of bringing Germany to glory. Rolf doesn’t trust Hans and Nils for a moment. For all their talk of greatness, they act more like bullies, antagonizing shop owners who are Rolf’s friends and neighbors. Yet Romer becomes increasingly obsessed with their message of division, and Rolf watches in horror as his family fractures even further. When there is an act of vandalism against a Jewish-owned business in town, Rolf fears Romer might have had something to do with it. Can Rolf find a way to intervene before things get any worse?

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