Review: "Elizabeth's New Hero" by Jamie Suzanne (created by Francine Pascal)

 

Elizabeth's New Hero by Jamie Suzanne (created by Francine Pascal)
First published 1989
★★

I don't think I read this one as a kid, but as an adult I'm curious about portrayals of East Germany, so...here we go. In Elizabeth's New Hero, an East German gymnastics team is in town to visit—and the Wakefields are hosting one of the students! What fun. Despite the title, Elizabeth doesn't have much more of a role here than Jessica (Elizabeth wants to interview Christoph for the sixth-grade newspaper; Jessica wants to invite him to hang out with the Unicorns), and she certainly doesn't have any better an understanding of East Germany than...well, Jessica. I guess someone in the editorial team wanted to maintain the perception that Elizabeth is as important to the series as Jessica.

To be fair...this was published in 1989, presumably shortly before the Berlin Wall came down, and the author clearly had zero idea about East Germany either. Christophe is enamoured with American life, enough so that he declares his intent to defect. But...what concerns him is not the lack of freedoms in the East German state, or the Stasi, or the lack of individual freedoms, or the excellent chance that some of his teammates will be reporting back on his behaviour when they return to East Germany. No, what concerns him is that his father puts too much emphasis on Christophe's gymnastics, and he'd rather learn to play the drums.

That's it, folks. That's Christophe's great concern about East Germany.

So Christophe's mother calls him in California, because there were never any issues with calling the West. And the conversation goes like this, because there was definitely no wire-tapping or Stasi hanging around to make arrests:

"Hello?" said Christophe.

Jessica heard Christophe's mother speaking German, but Christophe quickly interrupted her.

"I'm sorry, but I am going to be an American now," he said sternly. "You must speak to me in English!"

"Christophe, I was so worried when I found out you didn't return home," his mother said, speaking in English now. "I hope you are feeling better. Are you being well taken care of?"

"There is no need to worry about me," Christophe said. "I can take care of myself. I don't ever want to return to East Germany. This is my home now. I will be able to do all the things I have dreamed of." (86–87)

...because that sort of attitude would be nooooo problem for his family even if Christophe were to stay in the US and be (at least theoretically) outside the reach of the Stasi...

I mean, I guess it's also possible that Christophe's family are the Stasi? But although I know that communication barriers eased over time, and this book was published right before the Wall fell, it's hard to imagine that a kid raised in East Germany would be so ready to shout his intentions to defect over a phone line that was almost certainly monitored. (Then again, Christophe doesn't seem to have any issues with East Germany, just with his father being strict, so...)

Not clear whether the publisher wanted to avoid anything with a political bent or if the outliner/writer really just didn't know much about the situation and didn't care to learn, but it ends up feeling like a filler book to give Jessica some time to cook up her next scheme and Elizabeth some time to, IDK, polish her GPA.