I am honored to participate in the blog tour for Deborah Hopinson's latest nonfiction title, Courage and Defiance: Stories of Spies, Saboteurs, and Survivors in World War II Denmark: Stories of Spies, Saboteurs, and Survivors in World War II Denmark. Many thanks to Provato Events for inviting me on the blog tour and to Scholastic for providing me an advanced reader's copy of the book.


Description: When the Nazis invaded Denmark on Tuesday, April 9, 1940, the people of this tiny country to the north of Germany awoke to a devastating surprise. The government of Denmark surrendered quietly, and the Danes were ordered to go about their daily lives as if nothing had changed. But everything had changed.
   Award-winning author Deborah Hopkinson traces the stories of the heroic young men and women who would not stand by as their country was occupied by a dangerous enemy. Rather, they fought back. Some were spies, passing tactical information to the British; some were saboteurs, who aimed to hamper and impede Nazi operations in Denmark; and 95% of the Jewish population of Denmark were survivors, rescued by their fellow countrymen, who had the courage and conscience that drove them to act.

Review: Courage and Defiance may seem like yet another World War II book at first glance, however; its focus is not on the plight of the Jews in Germany nor the rise and fall of the Nazis but rather the Danish Resistance movement in Denmark. Before reading this book, I had very little knowledge of the Danish Resistance and it did not take me long until I found myself fully immersed in this book. I learned quite a lot from this book, which is always a good sign for a well written nonfiction title.  
 Hopkinson explores the exciting and true story about ordinary people who put their lives on the line in order to take stand on a belief they strongly felt was wrong and to save their country from Nazi control. Thoroughly researched narrative nonfiction, Courage and Defiance zeroes in on several people who held various jobs in the Danish Resistance such as Niels Skov, a saboteur who set fire to the Nazi vehicles, Tommy Sneum who secretly photographed German radar equipment and then flew a plane to England with the evidence in order to warn the British Allies, and many others who joined the resistance in a nonviolent way by illegally publishing Frit Danmark, a publication that called on citizens to take action and resist the German occupation.