by Michael P Spradlin

MG Historical Fiction, 2024 by Margaret K McElderry Books, 160 Pages

What I Didn’t Like:

That opening scene was difficult to read only because of what you KNOW is coming, what you KNOW was ignored, and parallels you might recognize. That’s all I’m saying about that.
The book chooses a young man for its central character, one too young to have political opinions. That slightly removes you from the happenings. While this is a good thing for actual middle grade readers, I list it as a negative if you’re not used to reading uninformed and naive main characters.
Probably didn’t need to end when it did. This is obviously the opening book in a series, it could’ve kept going easily into the next book.

Writing this for middle grades is truly brilliant. There are a lot of WWII books out there, but this one is obviously written for a younger audience and captures that voice authentically right from the start.
The main character is a younger boy who has no opinions of his own on politics. This works for this story because it allows younger readers to relate to him and then draw opinions with him.
Parallels to other events in history are not drawn, even in the author’s note. Anything you may notice or feel from this one is entirely drawn yourself, which is powerful.

History fans, specifically WWII fans. This one is written for a younger audience but it’s powerful and does create a voice for itself in the market.