Let Sleeping Dogs Lie Author:Mirjam Pressler Children's Literature — This young adult novel poses complex questions about right and wrong, living with guilt, and coming to terms with family members who have not been ethical in their dealings with others. Johanna, named for her grandmother, and her family live in modern Germany where the dealings of the post-war government of the 50s and the... more » Nazi regime surface in unexpected ways. A school assignment puts Johanna on a quest and throughout the novel she seeks to find the truth about her grandfather and his dealings with the Jewish people who owned the department store he bought from them after Kristallnacht. Traveling to Israel, Johanna sees a different side of the questions she wants answered: Can we love those who are guilty of taking advantage of a situation? How can we justify them to ourselves? Can we still love them? And perhaps more importantly, why did both her grandparents commit suicide? Johanna and her boyfriend Daniel are sexually active, something that the author makes quite explicit. There is also a scene of what appears to be date rape while Johanna is in Israel, although one is not really sure. Thought-provoking, especially as the newspaper exposes more information about the victims of the Holocaust and as survivors tell their stories. The novel is translated from the German and at times suffers for that. For older, mature readers. - Reviewer: Leslie Greaves Radloff« less