Leni Winkelberg is 16 in 1948, a lean year in post-war Germany [as depicted in "Castle on the Border"]. Determined upon theatrical stardom, Leni arranges her life with calculation and detachment, habits wherewith she had survived as an orphaned refugee from bombed Berlin…. Slowly she develops into a young woman of maturity, able finally to talk about her parents; to participate in Advent and Christmas traditions for their meaning, beyond the sorrow of memory; to attend her gentle uncle at the hour of his death.

Leni's finely drawn problem works itself out amid events that move constantly, and among people widely representative of the courageous national effort to rebuild a life and a land. "Castle on the Border" is a splendid book for teenage readers of advanced ability. (p. 34)