The Battle of Stalingrad cost over a million lives but changed the course of the Second World as it was the first time the German forces tasted defeat. The snipers used by the Soviet forces in Stalingrad became legendary. They were trained in patience and reached an amazing level of accuracy for hitting their target. They also developed a ruthlessness that helped them tip the balance in the Battle of Stalingrad
Tania Belova, the main character, is 16 when she leaves school to help to defend the Soviet Union from the German invasion in 1942. She is at first put on anti-aircraft guns and manages to shoot down nine enemy aircraft before training as a teenage sniper. Her story is closely based on the true experiences of a real-life hero, Tania Chernova, who was awarded the Red Star for bravery by her grateful country.
When Tania is recruited as a sniper, she is trained by Vasily Zaitsev. She and the rest of her group are to seek out and shoot Germans, especially their officers. In the beginning she finds it finds it almost difficult to imagine killing another human being, but events help her to steel herself for the task. She goes on to 'snap’ as many as 84 ‘German sticks', as she call her targets. Following being caught in enemy territory and a bold escape, she goes on to lead a small unit on a hazardous mission to seize Field Marshall Paulus, the Commander-in-Chief of the invading army.
This is an accessible and well –researched narrative for younger readers. It is a gripping tale and also offers some interesting perspectives on war in general. ( )

Gripping war story. ( )

Book review by Joshua, posted by CA Library:

"**SPOILER ALERT!** The Sniper by James Riordan is a book about a girl who is at the age of six-teen and forced to fight for Stalingrad. This girls name is Tenechka but everyone in the book seems to call her Tania. Its starts out in chapter 2 by saying she was at school and then through the next four chapters she has become a soldier.

This girl Tania was first an anti-aircraft gunner (AA Gunner) and didn’t sleep for four days and fur nights she was forced to take down enemy German planes back in WWII and shot down nine planes. Then she blacked out and was in a hospital cart then in her home and she woke up in her father’s favorite chair and the house was a mess. She looked around to find anyone but yet found no one.

The book is a great book and I really liked it and if you like reading about snipers and want to become one this is an ok book to read. In some parts I got chills and other parts were pretty boring but overall its really cool. I like on how the author made it through a soldiers point of view and through a giant transformation from School girl to Soldier fighting for her country. The one major down side is that it doesn’t say the name of the rifle when the girl receives sniper training also I like on how it has little romance in it but still involves blood, sweat, and tears. I rate this book 4 out of 5 stars." ( )

An exceptional book by an excellent author of the Percy Jackson books, James Riordan. My teen son and I read this within two day and we were both fighting each other for it! The true story of a teen, who wants to be a nurse, but gets called into fighting against the Germans in the Battle of Stalingrad. ( )