28. Stolen Child, by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch
Stolen from her family by the Nazis, Nadia is a young girl who tries to make sense of her confusing memories and haunting dreams. Bit by bit she starts to uncover the truth — that the German family she grew up with, the woman who calls herself Nadia's mother, are not who they say they are. Beyond her privileged German childhood, Nadia unearths memories of a woman singing her a lullaby, while the taste of gingersnap cookies brings her back to a strangely familiar, yet unknown, past. Piece by piece, Nadia comes to realize who her real family was. But where are they now? What became of them? And what is her real name?
During World War II, Hitler encouraged German women to have as many children as possible to populate the newly conquered lands with what he considered to be the master race. However, he was stymied by biology, so the Lebensborn program was begun, where young Polish and Ukrainian girls who had the right blonde-haired, blue-eyed looks were taken from their families and placed with German families. By the time the war was over, many were so brainwashed (or had been adopted so young that they remembered nothing else) that they didn't want to return to their birth families.
This is the story of a 12-year-old Ukrainian Lebensborn girl who immigrates to Canada in 1950 after five years in a Displaced Persons camp. The people she calls her parents are not the ones she was born to, nor the German couple who adopted her, but they are her family now. As she adapts to her new life in Canada, she begins to remember things from her earlier childhood.
29. This Darkness Mine, by Mindy McGinnis
Sasha Stone knows her place—first-chair clarinet, top of her class, and at the side of her oxford-wearing boyfriend. She’s worked her entire life to ensure that her path to Oberlin Conservatory as a star musician is perfectly paved. But suddenly there’s a fork in the road, in the shape of Isaac Harver. Her body shifts toward him when he walks by, her skin misses his touch even though she’s never known it, and she relishes the smell of him—smoke, beer, and trouble—all the things she’s avoided to get where she is. Even worse, every time he’s near Sasha, her heart stops, literally. Why does he know her so well—too well—and she doesn’t know him at all? Sasha discovers that her by-the-book life began by ending another’s: the twin sister she absorbed in the womb. But that doesn’t explain the gaps of missing time in her practice schedule or the memories she has of things she certainly never did with Isaac. As Sasha loses her much-cherished control, her life—and heart—become more entangled with Isaac. Armed with the knowledge that her heart might not be hers alone, Sasha must decide what she’s willing to do—and who she’s willing to hurt—to take it back.
This book is really disturbing. Sasha Stone believes that her heart is her twin sister's, and that's why she's going against what she's always worked for -- her sister's heart is claiming what it wants, and what it wants is bad. You're never quite sure what the truth is, and whether to root for Sasha or against her.
