Independent reading. Book Clubs. Novel in verse text study. Cross-curricular projects. Dana VanderLugt’s debut novel, Enemies in the Orchard, will serve many roles in your middle school classroom. Read on to learn which students to hand it to and a few ideas for how teach it in Book Clubs.

Title: Enemies in the Orchard

Author: Dana VanderLugt

Genre: Historical Fiction, Novel in Verse

Age Range: 11 – 16

Summary: It’s Autumn 1944 and 13-year-old Claire lives on her family’s apple orchard in a small town in Michigan. Her older sister is married and moved out, her older brother a soldier, fighting overseas. Needing manual labor, Claire’s father hires German soldiers who are being held nearby as prisoners of war, including Karl. Claire is begrudgingly grateful for their presence, as it allows her to continue to go to school and follow her aspirations of becoming a nurse. Karl misses his mother and three younger sisters, but finds his perspectives on the USA and his homeland continuously challenged as the lies he had been told unravel before him. A delicate friendship begins to form between Claire and Karl but neither are sure if it can overcome the hostilities between their countries.

Recommend it to students who enjoy:

• Other Words for Home by Jasmine Warga (Fans of Warga’s lyrical novel in verse will find Orchard to be an appropriate but engaging challenge as they track two narratives told through alternating chapters.)
• The Door of No Return and Black Star by Kwame Alexander (Readers who felt gut-punched by Alexander’s brilliant, emotional historical fiction novels in verse will also find themselves reeling from the poignant intensity of Orchard.)
• Other World War Two books. I recognize that this is quite a broad recommendation, but there are so many fantastic middle grade and lower young adult WWII books that your students already love. Pitch Orchard to these students by sharing that it has a unique perspective for a WWII story: it’s set in the USA, far from the fighting.

How to teach with Enemies in the Orchard:

This is an easy sell for Book Clubs. Whether your theme is historical fiction, World War II stories, or novels in verse, Enemies in the Orchard will be a popular selection. Here’s how you could structure each of these Book Club units:

• Historical Fiction: Consider essential questions such as “Are authors capable of leaving out their modern biases when writing historical fiction?” or “Do historical fiction novels have a moral imperative to elevate marginalized voices?” Then collect 5-10 titles from a variety of time periods (Finding Langston by Lesa Cline-Ransome and Freewater by Amina Luqman-Dawson are two additional recommendations). Teach students how to gather background knowledge on their time period, understand a character’s identity within the historical context, and connect the events of the past with contemporary issues.
• World War II Stories: Make it cross-curriculuar and teach this unit while students study WWII in Social Studies. It will humanize the key dates, battles, and important figures they learn about. Studying WWII in two classes will make the content more “sticky,” leading to increased comprehension and synthesis of complex information. Aim to include titles that collectively convey the vastness of experiences during WWII, especially titles that may represent your students’ families experiences.
• Novels in Verse: A Novels in Verse Book Club unit is a beautiful thing. It offers students an immense amount of choice on topic, theme, and text complexity. Lessons can teach poetic structure, figurative language, syntax, theme, character development—almost any literature standard can be woven in to help students make meaning. A few of my favorites: Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds, Aniana Del Mar Jumps In by Jasminne Mendez, and Inside Out & Back Again by Thanhha Lại (plus the three titles mentioned in the previous section).

My Final Two Cents: As an American, I often think about WWII as happening “over there.” VanderLugt’s book helps all of us readers empathize with the impact of WWII here at home.

This post includes affiliate links. Any purchases made through them come at no extra cost to you but they do help keep this newsletter free and accessible.