One Last Shot: Based on a True Story of Wartime Heroism

Ages 13 And Up, Grades 8 And Up

From critically acclaimed author Kip Wilson comes this gripping coming-of-age historical fiction novel in verse about Gerda Taro, a vibrant, headstrong photojournalist with a passion for capturing the truth amid political turmoil and the first woman photojournalist killed in combat.

The daughter of Polish Jewish immigrants, Gerda Pohorylle doesn’t quite fit in with her German classmates. While she’s away at boarding school, however, she becomes a master at reinventing herself as a vibrant, confident young woman. When she returns from school, she joins a group of young activists and is arrested for distributing anti-nazi propaganda. Her family decides she must leave Germany. In Paris, Gerda meets André Friedmann, a Hungarian photographer eager for fame and fortune, who fosters Gerda’s interest in photography. Together the pair reinvents their brand of photojournalism under the names Robert Capa and Gerda Taro, in part to gloss over their Jewish ancestry, and soon they’re traveling to areas of military conflict and selling their photos for high prices. Gerda continues to travel solo through Europe, often the only woman in journalism circles. Her assignments eventually lead her to Spain to cover the growing conflict that is becoming the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939), part of events leading up to World War II.True to her political beliefs, Gerda pushes closer and closer to the front line, eager to capture the lives and vibrant hopes of Spanish republican forces fighting against fascism, only to lose sight of her own safety.

About the Author

Kip Wilson is the author of White Rose, which won the Malka Penn Award for Human Rights in Children’s Literature, and the poetry editor of the Young Adult Review Network. She has a PhD in German Literature. She is also the winner of the PEN/New England Susan P. Bloom Discovery Award, and her work has appeared in several children’s literary magazines. She lives in Boston, Massachusetts.