Annexed Winner, and Scott Nicholson's Kindle Winners!

I have a few winners to announce! Well, only one from my giveaway, but also Scott Nicholson posted the results of his Blog Tour Kindle Giveaway on his blog. 

First off, the winner of Annexed by Sharon Dogar is none other than...

Jackie

Congratulations! She has been emailed, and I am just waiting to hear back from her. If I don't hear back from her within 48 hours I will choose another winner. Thank you everyone for entering the giveaway! Be on the lookout as I'm having quite a few giveaways this month! 

Scott Nicholson's blog tour was a MASSIVE success. He had some books hit the top 100 on Amazon during the tour and added a bonus Kindle to the giveaway. Seriously, if you haven't read his stuff, you should!

Taken from Scott's blog, linked here:

Congratulations to ellepaulette (Kindle DX), hufflepuffgrl13 (bonus Kindle 3), and dragonfly1976 (Kindle 3 for newsletter followers). Emails have been sent to the winners, who have one week to respond.

ellepaulette came from Book Faery and hufflepuffgrl13 came from Sparkling Reviews.

Winners were randomly selected by Ross Cooper and Evelyn Johnson, staff members at Watauga County Public Library. Thanks to tour sponsors Amazon, Dellaster Design, and Kindle Nation Daily.

Congratulations ellepaulette, hufflepuffgrl13, and dragonfly1976!

Annexed - Sharon Dogar - Review and Giveaway

I look out the window into the street. . . I'm meant to be at Mr. Frank's workplace in a few hours. We're arriving separately, all of us. We'll walk into the building just like it was any other visit--only this time we'll never walk out again. 

What was it like hiding in the Annex with Anne Frank? To be with Anne every day while she wrote so passionately in her diary? To be in a secret world within a world at war--alive on the inside, everything dying on the outside?

Peter Van Pels and his family have lost their country, their home, and their freedom, and now they are fighting desperately to remain alive. 

Look through Peter's eyes.

He has a story to tell, too. 

Are you listening? 

Title: Annexed

Author: Sharon Dogar

Genre: Fiction, Young Adult, Holocaust Literature

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Publication Date: October 4, 2010

Source: Received from publicist. I received two separate copies of this book from two separate companies. Many thanks goes to Anna from FSB Media, and to Anita from Thomas Allen & Son for sending me this book for review. I received this book free of charge in exchange for an honest review. 

My rating: 5/5

Annexed is a fictionalized, albeit harrowing account of those who were hiding in the Annex. It is given voice through Peter Van Pels perspective of the events that happened in the Annex, and the aftermath of their discovery. 

Annexed is a poignant and heartbreaking read. Though the people are real, and most of Dogar's writing is truth, there is a large portion that has been fictionalized as she is writing from Peter's point of view. Not much is known, and Dogar does take some liberties with his character. He, along with his family, the Frank's, and Dr. Pfeffer shared the living space that is the Annex. Quarters were cramped, and it was a struggle to survive as long as they did without being found. His views of Anne, progress over time, and it was quite intriguing to read what he may have thought about her. 

Once the story progresses to life in the death camps, their story becomes all the more horrific. Dogar portrays a vivid re-imagining of what life was like in the camps. The absolute torment that every person was put through created a stark portrayal of the anguish and horrific conditions that those in the camps were submitted to. Unfortunately, we see the worst, yet the best, that man is capable of. How anyone could subject another human being to the depravity seen in the death camps, is beyond me. I don't think I fully realized how agonizing life was for those in the camps until I read Annexed. Overall, I knew what had happened, but hadn't pictured it to the extent that is shown in Annexed. 

Peter's portrayal is an honest one, and we read his thoughts from the Annex, as well as from when he was held at Mauthausen. Though he also gives voice to certain feelings, I don't think it detracts from the novelization as it brings into perspective that he was in his prime as a teenager during the Holocaust. He lost so much, as did many others. 

The tone of the book is dark, haunting, and gripping. The further I progressed in reading Annexed, the more dismayed I became. The cruelty of the human race is disheartening, but there is yet hope for those who would rise against it. 

Overall, I believe this is a book that should be read by everyone. It is an emotionally draining read, and will leave you sobbing, but it is one of those books that must be read. We need to remember. 

Giveaway

I ended up receiving two copies of this book, and in saying, am hoping to give away one hardcover copy of Annexed. 

The giveaway is open to those in the US and Canada only. (Sorry to those of you who are international.) 

It will run until December 2, 2010.

Please fill out THIS FORM to be entered. Though comments are appreciated, they will not be counted as entries. Thank you. 

Guest Post by Sharon Dogar, author of Annexed.

Today, Sharon Dogar is here with a guest post on Peter van Pels, the main character in her new release, Annexed. Thank you Sharon for being here today, and thank you also to Anna from FSB Media for providing me with this informative guest post. If you would like to view the book trailer for Annexed, it can be found here. I highly recommend watching the book trailer as well as reading the guest post as it is just so gripping. I love the thought Sharon takes in describing Peter's life in it! 

Peter van Pels

By Sharon Dogar,

Author of Annexed

What we know of Peter van Pels is almost entirely limited to Anne Frank's diary, and her own personal view of him. He was, it seems, a shy boy, helpful and good with his hands. Reading between the lines of Anne's diary I've tried to imagine what Peter was "really" like. How do I do that? Here's an example: on Peter's arrival in the Annex, Anne describes him as a "hypochondriac" who "won't amount to much." She's fed up and dismissive of his histrionics, as most clever, early adolescent girls would probably be.

Anne describes a boy who sleeps all the time, lacks any type of motivation, has strange physical symptoms and believes he might be dying. If a child in my counseling room felt this way, I'd suspect depression. In fact, from an occupational point of view Peter's depression makes sense; it's a reasonable response to real events. Having to go into hiding to save your life isn't merely depressing, it's terrifying. Peter's "symptoms" and his fear that he's "dying" reflect the reality of both his own situation and of those in the attic. It's possible that this is partly what makes Anne so angry and dismissive of Peter, she doesn't want to be reminded of how dire a situation she is in (not at this stage). She wants to believe that she's safe. Peter's constant 'whinging' (as she calls it) keeps on reminding her that she's in danger.

We all have our own ways of managing fear and difficulty. Anne creates a safe fantasy world for herself (as many writers do) whilst Peter turns his distress into physical symptoms. Looked at in this way, Peter's character takes on a potentially different meaning from the one presented by Anne.

By carefully considering Anne's brilliantly vivid descriptions of Peter, and analyzing what they might mean, I slowly created a picture of how I thought Peter might be, and he came to feel very real to me. Most writers have that feeling of "hearing" their characters voices. Peter's voice (as I heard it) was quiet, thoughtful, questioning, full of feeling and in the end, quite stubborn and determined to be his own person. I can't, of course, know what the "real" Peter van Pels was like, but then again, how well do any of us know each other? How well did Anne know him, and how much was her view coloured by her own needs and desires?

I miss thinking and writing about Peter. I will always feel heart-broken and horrified at the waste of his young, promising life, and the lives of millions of others that the Nazis judged worthless. When it came to researching, imagining and writing about Peter's life in the camps I already felt very close to the character I'd created. I no longer really wanted to take the novel (and Peter) on into Auschwitz. I put off writing every day. I read survivor's testimonies. I went for long walks. I had very bad dreams. I decided that if I was going to go on, and imagine a life in the camps for Peter, then I had to make sure that every part of the "story" of what happened was rooted in reality. I studied the mechanics of life as a Jewish inmate of Auschwitz. I also realized that in imagining an ending for one person -- Peter van Pels -- I could try to describe the horror and systematic destruction of human life that was a Nazi concentration camp. And so I began to write the final section of the novel. It was written very quickly, almost in one go, and the words came surprisingly easily. Nonetheless, it's not something I would want to do again.

It may sound odd, but for me a part of the horror of human mass destruction is the total disregard those who kill fellow human beings show for the story that each and everyone of us holds within us; the story of our life. So in the end I gave Peter a story. It's probably not the story he would have told himself, but it tries to acknowledge that his story did not end with his arrest on August 1st, 1944, and that there is a story to be told. It may be horrific, it may not be something we want to think about, but Peter, and millions like him had no choice, they had to live it, and unlike the survivors who can give testimony, they died. In their millions. That doesn't mean that they can't be thought about, or that we don't have the right to imagine their story; for me it was the opposite, I felt compelled to create a story.

© 2010 Sharon Dogar, author of Annexed

Author Bio

Sharon Dogar, author of Annexed, is a children's psychotherapist who lives in Oxford, England, with her family. She discovered Anne Frank's diary as a child and then again recently when her daughter started reading it. While writing and researching this book, she spent many hours soaking up the atmosphere of the Annex. This is her third novel for young adults.

For more information please visit www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com.