A Year of Borrowed Men

During World War II, prisoners were used as farm workers in Germany. A Year of Borrowed Man is the true story of a seven year old girl named Gerda and the three french prisoners who were sent to her family’s farm. Gerda’s father was gone to fight in the war so the french prisoners were sent to help work on the farm. They were to be treated like prisoners and to sleep in the building right next to the animals. The prisoners were very friendly and Gerda’s family treated them very good. The prisoners were their friends. When the war was over, Gerda was very sad to see the prisoners leave.

I really liked A Year of Borrowed Men. I first read it on Veteran’s Day when I was learning about the different wars, and this was a part of WWII that I had not known about. I am the same age of Gerda and I can’t imagine what it would be like to have my father gone and prisoners come to stay with us. I liked to see that the prisoners and Gerda’s family cared about each other and Gerda’s family treated them so nicely. The illustrations are beautiful. I loved the end of the book that shows pictures of the real Gerda and her family’s history.