Chase Me, Catch Nobody is staunch in its criticism of Nazism and the horrors it engendered, and Haugaard demonstrates no sympathy for the movement itself or the people who supported it, whether actively or passively. Teachers may wish to place the novel in historical context by discussing the roots of National Socialism in Germany and the political environment that fostered Hitler's ascent to power. Set just before the outbreak of World War II—and thus before the Nazi's mass deportation and execution of "undesirables"—the book focuses on the inherent moral and political evils of Nazism rather than on the system's worst human rights abuses.

The possibility of death lurks in the back of Erik's mind at all times, but no characters actually die during the course of the narrative. Nobody's father's murder and her mother's desertion—both of which occur before the...