The Assignment

I love how this book portrays young people intelligently speaking truth to power…even when that power is the teacher grading you…even when that teacher is well-liked…even when some oppose your ideas.

This novel showed me what antisemitism (and bigotry in general) can look like in a contemporary high school, a place already brewing with emotions, factions, and hormones. The characters are so nuanced and realistic that I felt I was right there with them in the classroom and beyond.

This book inspired many productive conversations with my family and friends.

This young adult novel nails the complex challenge of making the Holocaust – and antisemitism in general – relevant to contemporary teens.

Based on true events, the book chronicles the fallout after a favorite teacher instructs students to argue in favor of the Nazis’ Final Solution against the Jews. This story is close to my heart for many reasons, not the least of which is that I’ve personally witnessed a sixth-grade teacher assigning the class to argue in defense of the blood libel, the accusation that Jewish people murder Christian children to use their blood in religious rituals.

Youngsters deserve… show more.

Wiemer is the type of storyteller who makes you think at every turn of the page. The Assignment looks at the world of discrimination and antisemitism as it is handed out in a classroom assignment by a teacher we're left wondering about from the beginning. What makes you brave under the pressure of your peers, and what makes you crumble? Wiemer will give you insight into that through this stirring tome.