The Faithful Spy: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the Plot to Kill Hitler

Interweaving handwritten text and art in his signature style, John Hendrix tells the fascinating story of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and his fight against the oppression of the German people during World War II. Bonhoeffer was a German Lutheran pastor and theologian who was shocked to watch the German church embrace Hitler's agenda of hatred. He spoke out against the Nazi party and led a breakaway church that rebelled against racist and nationalist beliefs of the Third Reich. Struggling with how his faith interacted with his ethics, Bonhoeffer eventually became convinced that Hitler and the Nazi Party needed to be stopped - and he was willing to sacrifice anything and everything to do so. This is quite a time to be looking back at Nazis. A year after President Donald Trump defended Charlottesville protesters carrying swastikas, a staffer in the Department of Homeland Security resigned last month after his ties to white nationalist organizations were exposed. Whether or not this is the ‘30s all over again, Adolf Hitler seems to be on people's tongues, making this a great time for John Hendrix's deep look at a real-life German theologian who refused to let his conception of Christianity become an accessory to genocide against minorities. Hendrix's beautiful blue-and-red layouts position the evolution of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's religious convictions against the historical tapestry of the Nazis' rise. It would be a vivid read at any time, but feels especially relevant now.", Entertainment Weekly "The author and illustrator of picture-book biographies of Jesus Christ, John Brown and other nonconformists, John Hendrix demonstrates his storytelling powers once again with this graphic-novel treatment of a turbulent time. Impressive in its scope and imagery, "The Faithful Spy" manages to convey not only the rise and fall of Hitler; it also peers into the soul of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, one of the many Germans who defied Hitler's tyrannical rule.", Washington Post "What will catch the reader's eye immediately is Hendrix's striking three-color art. The book is not a panel-by-panel graphic novel, but rather an inventive combination of text blocks and illustration. Each spread has its own ingenious design.", New York Times "Author-illustrator John Hendrix brings his considerable talents to this nonfiction graphic exploration of the German resistance during World War II. . . The Faithful Spy is exactly the kind of accessible, innovative page turner sure to entice new readers to the graphic format and the burgeoning genre of middle grade nonfiction. Truly a tour de force." , - BookPage "Mr. Hendrix's portrait of Bonhoeffer's courage and example, his unshakable piety amid horror, makes ‘The Faithful Spy' one of the year's most compelling works of nonfiction for readers ages 10 to 16." , The Wall Street Journal "With art rendered in stark reds and blues, John Hendrix's story is as much a feast to the eyes as it is a stirring, but ultimately tragic, tale.", NPR