9. The Forest of Vanishing Stars by Kristin Harmel

listened on Libby

376 pgs. (11:21)

2021
Adult Historical Fiction - WWII
Finished 2/22/2025
Goodreads rating: 4.25
My rating: 4.25
Setting: 1920s - 1944 Poland, woods

My comments: Set in a huge forest in Poland, mostly in the 1940s during World War II, a young girl is kidnapped by an old lady and raised in the forest learning survival skills, languages, Jewish prayers and customs until she is 21 and on her own.  She meets, helps, and guides a small group of Jewish refugees fleeing from their ghetto when everyone except them has been murdered by the Germans.  This tells the story of this girl and the people she saves and helps and loves.  It's an incredible survival story with a little bit of suspended belief here and there.  Good storytelling.

Goodreads synopsis:  The New York Times bestselling author of the The Book of Lost Names returns with an evocative coming-of-age World War II story about a young woman who uses her knowledge of the wilderness to help Jewish refugees escape the Nazis—until a secret from her past threatens everything.

After being stolen from her wealthy German parents and raised in the unforgiving wilderness of eastern Europe, a young woman finds herself alone in 1941 after her kidnapper dies. Her solitary existence is interrupted, however, when she happens upon a group of Jews fleeing the Nazi terror. Stunned to learn what’s happening in the outside world, she vows to teach the group all she can about surviving in the forest—and in turn, they teach her some surprising lessons about opening her heart after years of isolation. But when she is betrayed and escapes into a German-occupied village, her past and present come together in a shocking collision that could change everything.

Inspired by incredible true stories of survival against staggering odds, and suffused with the journey-from-the-wilderness elements that made Where the Crawdads Sing a worldwide phenomenon, The Forest of Vanishing Stars is a heart-wrenching and suspenseful novel.

40. The Secret Book of Flora Lea by Patti Callahan Henry

listened on Libby
355 pgs.

2023
Adult Historical Fiction/Mystery
Finished 5/4/2024
Goodreads rating: 4.07
My rating: 4
Setting: England, flipping between 1939 and 1960

My comments: Two sisters are sent off to the countryside with hundreds of other kids to be billeted with families to keep them safe from the upcoming bombings of London at the beginning of WWII.  Luckily, these two girls find a home with a wonderful woman and her son.  This is a story of loss, love, and grief.  There were not enough surprises in the retelling, most was told at the beginning and just recapped with a few more details, which made it a little boring in places.  Lovely writing.  I loved the settings.

Goodreads synopsis:  When a woman discovers a rare book that has connections to her past, long-held secrets about her missing sister and their childhood spent in the English countryside during World War II are revealed.

In the war-torn London of 1939, fourteen-year-old Hazel and five-year-old Flora are evacuated to a rural village to escape the horrors of the Second World War. Living with the kind Bridie Aberdeen and her teenage son, Harry, in a charming stone cottage along the River Thames, Hazel fills their days with walks and games to distract her young sister, including one that she creates for her sister and her sister alone—a fairy tale about a magical land, a secret place they can escape to that is all their own.

But the unthinkable happens when young Flora suddenly vanishes while playing near the banks of the river. Shattered, Hazel blames herself for her sister’s disappearance, and she carries that guilt into adulthood as a private burden she feels she deserves.

Twenty years later, Hazel is in London, ready to move on from her job at a cozy rare bookstore to a career at Sotheby’s. With a charming boyfriend and her elegantly timeworn Bloomsbury flat, Hazel’s future seems determined. But her tidy life is turned upside down when she unwraps a package containing an illustrated book called Whisperwood and the River of Stars . Hazel never told a soul about the imaginary world she created just for Flora. Could this book hold the secrets to Flora’s disappearance? Could it be a sign that her beloved sister is still alive after all these years?

As Hazel embarks on a feverish quest, revisiting long-dormant relationships and bravely opening wounds from her past, her career and future hang in the balance. An astonishing twist ultimately reveals the truth in this transporting and refreshingly original novel about the bond between sisters, the complications of conflicted love, and the enduring magic of storytelling.

25. Signal Moon - Short story by Kate Quinn

listened on Audible
57 pgs.

2022
Adult Historical Fiction/SciFi Short Story
Finished 3/24/24
Goodreads rating: 4.33
My rating: 5
Setting: 1943 & 2023 London

My comments: Two time periods, two Navy radio operators.  One in 1943, one in 2023.  One British, one American.  Talk about long-distance relationships!  One saves the other.  SciFi....love it more and more each time I read one.

Goodreads synopsis:  A short story about an impossible connection across two centuries that could make the difference between peace or war.

Yorkshire, 1943. Lily Baines, a bright young debutante increasingly ground down by an endless war, has traded in her white gloves for a set of headphones. It’s her job to intercept enemy naval communications and send them to Bletchley Park for decryption.

One night, she picks up a transmission that isn’t code at all—it’s a cry for help.

An American ship is taking heavy fire in the North Atlantic—but no one else has reported an attack, and the information relayed by the young US officer, Matt Jackson, seems all wrong. The contact that Lily has made on the other end of the radio channel says it’s… 2023.

Across an eighty-year gap, Lily and Matt must find a way to help each other: Matt to convince her that the war she’s fighting can still be won, and Lily to help him stave off the war to come. As their connection grows stronger, they both know there’s no telling when time will run out on their inexplicable link.

PICTURE BOOK - Write to Me: Letters from Japanese American Children to the Librarian They Left Behind by Cynthia Grady

Illustrated by Amiko Hirao

2018, Charlesbridge Publishing

HC $16.99

32 pgs.

Goodreads rating:  4.29 - 92 ratings

My rating:  4.5

1^st line/s:  "Katherine Tasaki returned a stack of books and turned in her library card.  "We've go to move soon," she said.  "All Japanese, you know."

My comments:  The internment and mistreatment of Japanese Americans during WWII has always bewildered and incensed me.  This true story connects kids not only to this sad part of American History, but also highlights a brave American woman who did something to help alter a horrendous situation.

Goodreads  A touching story about Japanese American children who corresponded with their beloved librarian while they were imprisoned in World War II internment camps.
          When Executive Order 9066 is enacted after the attack at Pearl Harbor, children's librarian Clara Breed's young Japanese American patrons are to be sent to prison camp. Before they are moved, Breed asks the children to write her letters and gives them books to take with them. Through the three years of their internment, the children correspond with Miss Breed, sharing their stories, providing feedback on books, and creating a record of their experiences. Using excerpts from children's letters held at the Japanese American National Museum, author Cynthia Grady presents a difficult subject with honesty and hope.
          " A beautiful picture book for sharing and discussing with older children as well as the primary audience" -- Booklist STARRED REVIEW 
          "A touching tribute to a woman who deserves recognition" -- Kirkus Reviews
          "[An] affecting introduction to a distressing chapter in U.S. history and a brave librarian who inspired hope" -- Publisher's Weekly

32. The Women in the Castle by Jessica Shattuck

listened on Audible
2017, William Morrow
356 pgs.
Ad Historical Fiction
Finished: 4/7/18
Goodreads rating:  3.89 - 28,302 ratings
My rating:  3.5
Setting: Mostly WW II and aftermath, Germany

First line/s: "The day of the countess's famous harvest party began with a driving rain that hammered down on all the ancient von Ligenfels castle's sore spots -- springing leaks, dampening floors,  and turning its yellow facade a slick, beetle-like black."

My comments:  This book had a point of view a bit different from other World War II fiction that I've read.  Three German women, all mothers, all widows, and all from very different backgrounds, come together to survive in the aftermath of what Hitler has done to Germany.  It follows them and their offspring from 1938 until 1991.  This is an interesting look at the lives of the German people as they decided whether to joint the Nazi party, to fight against it, or just go along with it.

Goodreads synopsis: Three women, haunted by the past and the secrets they hold
          Set at the end of World War II, in a crumbling Bavarian castle that once played host to all of German high society, a powerful and propulsive story of three widows whose lives and fates become intertwined an affecting, shocking, and ultimately redemptive novel from the author of the New York Times Notable Book The Hazards of Good Breeding.
          Amid the ashes of Nazi Germany s defeat, Marianne von Lingenfels returns to the once-grand castle of her husband s ancestors, an imposing stone fortress now fallen into ruin following years of war. The widow of a resister murdered in the failed July 20, 1944, plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler, Marianne plans to uphold the promise she made to her husband s brave conspirators: to find and protect their wives, her fellow resistance widows.
          First Marianne rescues six-year-old Martin, the son of her dearest childhood friend, from a Nazi reeducation home. Together, they make their way across the smoldering wreckage of their homeland to Berlin, where Martin s mother, the beautiful and naive Benita, has fallen into the hands of occupying Red Army soldiers. Then she locates Ania, another resister s wife, and her two boys, now refugees languishing in one of the many camps that house the millions displaced by the war.
          As Marianne assembles this makeshift family from the ruins of her husband s resistance movement, she is certain their shared pain and circumstances will hold them together. But she quickly discovers that the black-and-white, highly principled world of her privileged past has become infinitely more complicated, filled with secrets and dark passions that threaten to tear them apart. Eventually, all three women must come to terms with the choices that have defined their lives before, during, and after the war each with their own unique share of challenges.
          Written with the devastating emotional power of The Nightingale, Sarah s Key, and The Light Between Oceans, Jessica Shattuck s evocative and utterly enthralling novel offers a fresh perspective on one of the most tumultuous periods in history. Combining piercing social insight and vivid historical atmosphere, The Women in the Castle is a dramatic yet nuanced portrait of war and its repercussions that explores what it means to survive, love, and, ultimately, to forgive in the wake of unimaginable hardship.

15. The Disappearances by Emily Bain Murphy

read on my iPhone
2017, HMH Books for Young Readers
388 pgs.
YA Dystopia/ 1942 America
Finished 2/5/2018
Goodreads rating: 4.13 - 1609 ratings
My rating: 4
Setting:  1942 Sterling, an east coast American community

First line/s:  "I want something of hers.  There's a teacup downstairs, the last one she used before she died."

My comments:  This is one of those books that just keeps getting better and better as it goes along  Lots of fantasy mixed with mystery and a lovely, small-town 1942 setting.  There was one major thing that was a little too unbelievable to make this five-worthy, and I will write it here invisibly because it is definitely the biggest spoiler of the book:
How are we to believe that Shakespeare's bones were stolen from England and brought to the United States?  There's nothing in Steffen's stories to even hint at this that I can remember...if the book was set in England it would be so much more believable.  Also, some of the variants -- magic potions -- made sense, but the hows and whys behind the invention of others were really unclear and frustrating.
      This was a clever book with a few flaws, an enjoyable read, and recommended.

Goodreads synopsis: What if the ordinary things in life suddenly…disappeared?
          Aila Quinn’s mother, Juliet, has always been a mystery: vibrant yet guarded, she keeps her secrets beyond Aila’s reach. When Juliet dies, Aila and her younger brother Miles are sent to live in Sterling, a rural town far from home--and the place where Juliet grew up.
          Sterling is a place with mysteries of its own. A place where the experiences that weave life together--scents of flowers and food, reflections from mirrors and lakes, even the ability to dream--vanish every seven years.
          No one knows what caused these “Disappearances,” or what will slip away next. But Sterling always suspected that Juliet Quinn was somehow responsible--and Aila must bear the brunt of their blame while she follows the chain of literary clues her mother left behind.
          As the next Disappearance nears, Aila begins to unravel the dual mystery of why the Disappearances happen and who her mother truly was. One thing is clear: Sterling isn’t going to hold on to anyone's secrets for long before it starts giving them up. 

PICTURE BOOK - Always Remember Me: How One Family Survived World War II by Marisabina Russo

Illustrated by the author, I assume

2005 Atheneum Books for Young Readers

HC $19.99

40 pgs.

Goodreads rating:  4.09 - 112 ratings

My rating:  5

Endpapers:  A collage of the actual photographs of the people depicted in the story.

1^st line/s:  "Sunday is the most important day of the week in my family, the day we gather for dinner at my Oma's."

My comments:  When should you start sharing information about the Holocaust with kids?  That's a big, tough question.  This picture book is a great way to begin, and is written for mid-elementary school kids.  It's based on a true story of a real family, has lovely illustrations, more-than-usual text (but not too much) and real photographs of the real people.  It's a treasure, and would be wonderful paired with Number the Stars for a fourth grade reading unit.

Goodreads:  Rachel's Oma (her grandmother) has two picture albums. In one the photographs show only happy times -- from after World War II, when she and her daughters had come to America. But the other album includes much sadder times from before -- when their life in Germany was destroyed by the Nazis' rise to power. 
For as long as Rachel can remember, Oma has closed the other album when she's gotten to the sad part. But today Oma will share it all. Today Rachel will hear about what her grandmother, her mother, and her aunts endured. And she'll see how the power of this Jewish family's love for one another gave them the strength to survive. 
Marisabina Russo illuminates a difficult subject for young readers with great sensitivity. Based on the author's own family history, Always Remember Me is a heartbreaking -- and inspiring -- book sure to touch anyone who reads it.

PICTURE BOOK - Shanghai Sukkah by Heidi Smith Hyde

Illustrated by Jing Jing Tsong

2015, Kar-Ben Publishing

32 pgs.

Goodreads rating:  4.07 - 29 ratings

My rating: 4

Endpapers: front:  Berline/ back: Shanghai streets

1^st line/s: "On his tenth birthday, Marcus found himself on an ocean liner, headed for Shanghai."

My comments:  Here's another wonderful picture book that sheds light on yet another aspect of history that I was totally unaware of.  It leaves me with many questions....are there still Jewish communities in Shanghai?  I'll have to research farther.  This was a book celebrating history, friendship, traditions, and cultures.  Wonderful!

Goodreads:  Fleeing the Holocaust in Europe, Marcus moves with his family from Berlin to Shanghai. With help from his new friend Liang, Marcus sets out to build a unique sukkah in time for the harvest festival of Sukkot.

MOVIE - Their Finest

R (1:50)

Limited release 4/7/17

Viewed 6/7/17 at Carlisle Theater, Downtown Carlisle
IMBd:  6.9/10

RT Critic:  87  Audience:  77
Critic's Consensus:  Carried along by a winning performance from Gemma Arterton, Their Finest smoothly combines comedy and wartime drama to crowd-pleasing effect.

Cag:  3.5  Would have liked it a lot - maybe even loved it - if it hadn't gotten so depressing

Directed by Lone Scherlig

Europa Corps/ STX Films

British actors (including Bill Nighy)

My comments:  I was liking this movie a lot until something very sad happened and then I changed my mind.  1940 London, and women are definitely inferior human beings.  The movie highlights a woman who is actually able to get somewhere in the very inhibiting and controlling male world of the time.  I love the premise of the movie,but throwing in something sad when it's not serving any purpose that I can see or think of really pissed me off.  I left feeling extremely deflated and quite a bit depressed.  I guess it was a good movie overall, but who wants to leave down in the dumps?

RT/ IMDb Summary:  The year is 1940, London. With the nation bowed down by war, the British ministry turns to propaganda films to boost morale at home. Realizing their films could use "a woman's touch," the ministry hires Catrin Cole (Gemma Arterton) as a scriptwriter in charge of writing the female dialogue. Although her artist husband looks down on her job, Catrin's natural flair quickly gets her noticed by cynical, witty lead scriptwriter Buckley (Sam Claflin). Catrin and Buckley set out to make an epic feature film based on the Dunkirk rescue starring the gloriously vain, former matinee idol Ambrose Hilliard (Bill Nighy). As bombs are dropping all around them, Catrin, Buckley and their colorful cast and crew work furiously to make a film that will warm the hearts of the nation.

PICTURE BOOK - Tucky Jo and Little Heart by Patricia Polacco

Illustrated by the author

2015 Simon & Schuster

48 pgs.

Goodreads rating: 4.54

My rating: 4 (or a little less)

1^st line/s:  "I was born in Allen, Kentucky, on October third, nineteen hundred and twenty four.  I grew up like any backcountry boy in Kentucky.  Tougher than last year's jerky and faster than a scared jackrabbit.  I could whittle and carve just about any kind of stick or wood and I could sneak up on just about anything.  Came in right handy for huntin'.  My pa taught me how to use a shotgun when I was knee-high to a grasshopper."

Based on a True Story

Lesson plan with questions and activities

My comments: I'll begin by saying that I'm a HUGE Patricia Polacco fan.  I've read almost all of her many wonderful books. They're not picture books for four year olds.  They're almost always geared to an older reader.  This one especially, for many reasons.  Lots of text - a typical trademark for Polacco, which I particularly enjoy as a fourth and fifth grade teacher.  A higher level of vocabulary and more complex storyline.  Always a plus for me!  I had two problems with this book.  First, some of the vocabulary and explanations about this particular war and setting could probably not be answered correctly by me or many adults sharing the book. It needed a short afterword, or something with more in-depth explanation of some of the added information that didn't belong in the main text of the story. It included an epilogue which included a little more information about the two protagonists, but nothing more.  And second, the ending left too many questions for me. Joe must have been about 85 by the time he was reunited with Little Heart.  That would have made her in her early 70s. At least.  She was still nursing? How on earth did she end up in the same hospital where he happened to be?  In MICHIGAN? I needed more information on these two points. It makes me skeptical.  However, that's adult skeptical, probably not most-kid skeptical....

Goodreads:  Friendship, loyalty, and kindness stand the test of time in this heartwarming World War II–era picture book based on a true story from the beloved author-illustrator of Pink and Say and The Keeping Quilt.
     Tucky Jo was known as the “kid from Kentucky” when he enlisted in the army at age fifteen. Being the youngest recruit in the Pacific during World War II was tough. But he finds a friend in a little girl who helps him soothe his bug bites, and he gets to know her family and gives them some of his rations. Although the little girl doesn’t speak English, Tucky Jo and Little Heart share the language of kindness. Many years later, Tucky Jo and Little Heart meet again, and an act of kindness is returned when it’s needed the most in this touching picture book based on a true story.

MOVIE - Anthropoid

R (2:00)

Limited release 8/12/16

Viewed  8/21/16 at Midtown Cinemas, Harrisburg, PA

RT Critic:  58  Audience:  73
Critic's Consensus:  No consensus yet. (8/29/16)

Cag:  4 - Liked most of it very much

Directed by Sean Ellis

LD Entertainment

Jamie Dornan, Cillian Murphy

My comments:  How can you watch any movie that includes Nazis and not feel hatred?  This movie was the retelling of how parachutists return to their native Czechoslovakia trained to and with orders to kill the third in the Nazi command.  Because it's based on a true story and knowing the reality of the time, there are no doubts about how the story will end.  Therefore, there is no shock, but plenty of revulsion.  I'm glad these stories are being told, they should never be forgotten or untold.And this time it was the whole country of Czechoslovakia and not just its Jewish inhabitants that were targeted.  Realizing that this sort of thing still goes on in our world makes me feel so helpless.  Hatred.  Greed.  Power.    And, a side note:after watching Jamie Dornan in 50 Shades of Grey, and The Fall, it was difficult relating to him as one of the operatives....I kept seeing him as a 2015 sex god or serial killer....

RT Summary:  ANTHROPOID is based on the extraordinary true story of "Operation Anthropoid," the code name for the Czechoslovakian operatives' mission to assassinate SS officer Reinhard Heydrich. Heydrich, the main architect behind the Final Solution, was the Reich's third in command behind Hitler and Himmler and the leader of Nazi forces in Czechoslovakia. The film follows two soldiers from the Czechoslovakian army-in-exile, Josef Gabčík (Cillian Murphy) and Jan Kubis (Jamie Dornan), who are parachuted into their occupied homeland in December 1941. With limited intelligence and little equipment in a city under lock down, they must find a way to assassinate Heydrich, an operation that would change the face of Europe forever.

PICTURE BOOK - A Year of Borrowed Men by Michelle Barker

Illustrated by Renne Benoit

1st published in Canada in 2015; US publishing in 2016 by PajamaPress (Canada

$18.95

40 pgs.

Goodreads rating: 3.78 (23 ratings)

My rating: 4 

Illustrations: "The illustrations are rendered in watercolour and coloured pencil, with a little pastel, on paper."

1^st line/s:  "I was seven when the French prisoners of war arrive at our house.  It was 1944.  Mummy told us the government had sent them because all our men were gone to war, and someone needed to keep the farms running.  She said we were just borrowing the French men.  When the war was over, we would give them back."

My comments:  This WWII picture book for older kids was not told from the "usual" point of view.  How often do we consider what it was like for the average German family during that time?  Based on a true story, Gerta's family take on three French prisoners-of-war to work their large farm while her father is away fighting in the German army.  The Frenchmen must stay in the "pig kitchen" and Greta's mother will be taken to jail if they treat them in any un-prisoner-like way.  However, Greta makes friends with them, finding them kind.   It's a great story to show still another point-of-view during wartime, one not too often told. 

Goodreads: When World War II borrows the men in six-year-old Gerda s family, the German government sends them three new men in return: Gabriel, Fermaine, and Albert, French prisoners of war who must sleep in an outbuilding and work the farm until the war is over. Gerda knows they are supposed to treat the men as enemies, but it doesn t seem fair. Can t they invite them into the warm house for one meal? What harm could it do to be friendly? Writing from her mother s childhood memories of Germany during World War II, Michelle Barker shares the story of one family s daring kindness in a time of widespread anger and suspicion. Renne Benoit s illustrations bring warmth to the era, showing the small ways in which a forbidden friendship bloomed: good food, a much-loved doll, a secret Christmas tree. Family photographs and an Author s Note give further insight into the life of Gerda, the little girl who proved that it isn t so far from Feinde (enemies) to Freunde (friends)."

36. Lizzie and the Lost Baby - Cheryl Blackford

Book from Amelia Givin Library
2016 HMH Books for Young Readers
181 pgs.
Middle Grade Historical Fiction
Finished 6/18/16
Goodreads rating: 3.94 (90 ratings)
My rating:1/I had some definite problems with this book, and I can't even say it was okay...
Setting: WWII Yorkshire countryside

First line/s:  "Every window on the train had been painted black, blocking any possible view of the passing scenery."

My comments:  I hate to have to rate a book - any book -  less than a four, it makes me feel really bad. But I try to give my honest opinions in these reviews, even if sometimes I can't put my feelings into understandable words.  But I had some definite problems with this book.  Lots of stereotyping.  Lots of really bad adults.  Immoral, unethical ones.  What are we teaching kids?  I think a story about a brave girl is a great idea -- but even though there may have been huge amounts of unethical people in WWII Britain, I dislike the way the book portrayed the members of this community, including the police, as selfish, hateful idiots.  A whole community came together to house kids from the city, kids they didn't even know, to keep them safe, and then the individuals we come upon in the story itself have low ethics and morals? Kidnappers, liars, bigots...  Ridiculous.  Although this has some great information about WWII, safety issues, gypsies, etc., I won't be sharing it with any of my students or grandkids.

Goodreads synopsis:Cheryl Blackford's debut novel is set in England during World War II and told from the dual perspectives of ten-year-old Lizzie, a homesick girl evacuated from bomb-blitzed Hull to the remote Yorkshire valley, and Elijah, a local gypsy boy. When Lizzie discovers an abandoned baby, her dangerous friendship with Elijah is put to the test. Will Lizzie be able to find the baby's parents? And if she does, can she and Elijah remain friends in a world clouded by prejudice and fear
?

MOVIE - The Imitation Game

PG-13 (1:54)

Wide release 11/24/14

Viewed Friday, 1/23/2015 at ElCon

RT Critic: 90   Audience:  94  

Cag:  5/Loved it

Directed by Morton Tyldum

The Weinstein Company

Benedict Cumberbatch, Keira Knightley, Matthew Goode (who mesmerizes me on The Good Wife....)

My comments:  I thoroughly enjoyed this movie; the story, the setting, and the acting.  Based on a true story during the second world war, it is really about the invention of the computer by genius Alan Turing - a genius who had all the expected genius-sort of oddities to go along with his personality. Yes, Benedict Cumberbatch truly deserved his Academy Award nomination. Wonderful movie, and terrific to learn about this piece of history.

RT Summary:  During the winter of 1952, British authorities entered the home of mathematician, cryptanalyst and war hero Alan Turing (Benedict Cumberbatch) to investigate a reported burglary. They instead ended up arresting Turing himself on charges of 'gross indecency', an accusation that would lead to his devastating conviction for the criminal offense of homosexuality - little did officials know, they were actually incriminating the pioneer of modern-day computing. Famously leading a motley group of scholars, linguists, chess champions and intelligence officers, he was credited with cracking the so-called unbreakable codes of Germany's World War II Enigma machine. An intense and haunting portrayal of a brilliant, complicated man, THE IMITATION GAME follows a genius who under nail-biting pressure helped to shorten the war and, in turn, save thousands of lives.

23. Gingersnap - Patricia Reilly Giff

2013, Wendy Lamb Books, Random House

147 pgs.

Written for Middle grades

Finished 5/2/2014

Historical Fiction

Goodreads Rating: 3.37

My Rating: Liked it - with reservations (see below)

TPPL

Setting: 1944 Brooklyn, NY

1^st sentence/s:  "I'll be right there, Rob," I called.  Did my brother hear me?

My comments:  :This was a good story, but there were several weird additions and subtractions that keeps it only "good."  The protagonist, Jayna, has a ghost accompany her once in awhile throughout the story.  Why?  For me it was unbelievable and pointless.  And finding a long-lost grandparent or extremely close friend-of-the-family?  Even in the 1940's if there was a death in the family, survivors would be sought, contacted....  Then there was the useless, confusing-a-that-point prologue.  The finding-a-new-family and the setting of Brooklyn were wonderful and could have been more deeply explored.  Oh well.  On to the next....

Goodreads Summary:  It's 1944, W.W. II is raging. Jayna's big brother Rob is her only family. When Rob is called to duty on a destroyer, Jayna is left in their small town in upstate New York with their cranky landlady. But right before he leaves, Rob tells Jayna a secret: they may have a grandmother in Brooklyn. Rob found a little blue recipe book with her name and an address for a bakery. When Jayna learns that Rob is missing in action, she's devastated. Along with her turtle Theresa, the recipe book, and an encouraging, ghostly voice as her guide, Jayna sets out for Brooklyn in hopes of finding the family she so desperately needs.

MOVIE - The Monuments Men

PG-13 (1:58)

Wide release 2/7/14

Viewed with Fran at the Orleans 2/15/2014

RT Critic: 34 Audience: 52

Cag: 3-Liked it

Directed by George Clooney

SONY Pictures

George Clooney, Matt Damon, Bill Murray, John Goodman, Cate Blanchette,

My comments:  I enjoyed learning about the history behind this World War II true story.  The storyline was a little choppy, but the actors were enjoyable and the story extremely interesting.  And it's never difficult watching Bill Murray and Matt Damon!

Fandango review:  Based on the true story of the greatest treasure hunt in history, The Monuments Men is an action drama focusing on an unlikely World War II platoon, tasked by FDR with going into Germany to rescue artistic masterpieces from Nazi thieves and returning them to their rightful owners. It would be an impossible mission: with the art trapped behind enemy lines, and with the German army under orders to destroy everything as the Reich fell, how could these guys – seven museum directors, curators, and art historians, all more familiar with Michelangelo than the M-1 – possibly hope to succeed? But as the Monuments Men, as they were called, found themselves in a race against time to avoid the destruction of 1000 years of culture, they would risk their lives to protect and defend mankind’s greatest achievements.

MOVIE - The Book Thief

PG-13 (2:05)

Limited Release 11/8/2013

Viewed 1/27/2014 at Crossroads

RT Critic: 50 Audience: 79

Cag:  4.5 Liked it a lot

Directed by Brian Percival

20th Century Fox

Actors:  Geoffrey Rush, Emily Watson, Sophie Nelisse

Reviews:  Based on the beloved international bestselling book, The Book Thief tells the story of an extraordinary, spirited young girl sent to live with a foster family in WWII Germany. Intrigued by the only book she brought with her, she begins collecting books as she finds them. With the help of her new parents and a secret guest under the stairs, she learns to read and creates a magical world that inspires them all.

My comments:  This is one of those movies that makes a lasting impression.  The story, about how Hitler and WWII affected the German population, was incredibly powerful and well-told.  The acting (and the choices of those actors) was exquisite.  I have put off reading this book - mainly because it's so dense - but have heard nothing but good reviews and high praise for it.  The actress who plays Lisl, Sophie Nelisse, is mesmerizing - she is absolutely beautiful, innocent-looking, and an incredible actress (especially for one so young).  Geoffrey Rush is so perfect as "Papa," and their relationship in wonderfully believable.  The character of "Mama" and Emily Watson's performance of it - well - I was incredibly impressed.  Two words.  Stunning.  Sad.

Boxes for Katje - Candace Fleming

Illustrated  by Stacey Dressen-McQueen

2003, Farrar, Straus & Giroux

HC $17.99

32 cram-packed pgs.

Goodreads rating: 4.43 (320 ratings)

My rating: 5
TPPL

Endpapers: Excellent!
     Front - Mayfield, Indiana; May, 1945
     Back - Mayfield, Indiana; May, 1947 (yards FULL of tulips)

Illustrations:  Full page (no white :) edge-to-edge; bright, colorful, loaded with lots to take in. 

Title page:  Two-page painting of a girl (Rosie) with a package in her arms and her dog walking down a sidewalk towards in a "U.S. Mail" box

1^st line/s:  "After the war, there was little left in the tiny Dutch town of Olst.  The townspeople lived on cabbages and seed potatoes.  They patched and repatched their worn-thin clothing and they went without soap or milk, sugar or new shoes."

My comments:  I adore this story.  It's based on true happenings after World War II.  It's about people hearing of others with misfortune...and then doing something about it.  This is why I knit bears for orhans in South Africa and crochet 6 x 6 squares for afghans go to people who are colder than I am.  This story brought tears to my eyes.  I want a copy of my own!

Goodreads:  After World War II there is little left in Katje's town of Olst in Holland. Her family, like most Dutch families, must patch their old worn clothing and go without everyday things like soap and milk. Then one spring morning when the tulips bloom "thick and bright," Postman Kleinhoonte pedals his bicycle down Katje's street to deliver a mysterious box – a box from America! Full of soap, socks, and chocolate, the box has been sent by Rosie, an American girl from Mayfield, Indiana. Her package is part of a goodwill effort to help the people of Europe. What's inside so delights Katje that she sends off a letter of thanks – beginning an exchange that swells with so many surprises that the girls, as well as their townspeople, will never be the same.  This inspiring story, with strikingly original art, is based on the author's mother's childhood and will show young readers that they, too, can make a difference. 

44. Listening for Lucca - Suzanne LaFleur

2013, Wendy Lamb Books, Random House

232 pgs.

Mid Grades Fantastic RF

Finished 9/21/2013

Goodreads Rating: 3.93

My Rating:  Liked it (3) 

TPPL

Contemporary coast of Maine, with forays back to 1944

My comments:  This book was set in Maine, in a big house right on the beach, and I wish the setting had been explored a little more.  This wasn't realistic fiction, it was fantasy, because Siena, the protagonist, could see into people-of-the-past's lives. Trying to figure out how to help her three-year-old brother, Lucca, to talk was a driving force in her life.  Her abilities to see and touch the lives of the family that lived 60 years before in her house is the "key" that helps this happen.

Goodreads Review:  "I'm obsessed with abandoned things." Siena's obsession began a year and a half ago, around the time her two-year-old brother Lucca stopped talking. Now Mom and Dad are moving the family from Brooklyn to Maine hoping that it will mean a  whole new start for Lucca and Siena. She soon realizes that their wonderful old house on the beach holds secrets. When Siena writes in her diary with an old pen she found in her closet, the pen writes its own story, of Sarah and Joshua, a brother and sister who lived in the same house during World War II. As the two stories unfold, amazing parallels begin to appear, and Siena senses that Sarah and Joshua's story might contain the key to unlocking Lucca's voice.

40. The Time Between - Karen White

Audio read by the three voices (though Eleanor's is the primary voice) Jennifer Ikeda, Barbara Rosenblat, and Angela Goethals

13 unabridged cds/15.5 hours) - think I might have enjoyed an abridged version....

2013 Recorded Books

352 pgs.

Written for adults

Finished 9/15/2013

CRF with flashbacks to WWII Hungary

GoodreadsRating: 4.14

My Rating: 2/It was okay

TPPL

Setting: Contemporary Charleston, SC and nearby Edisto Island

My comments: This one dragged....and I felt like slapping the protagonist and yelling, "get over it!" The foray into history - world war two and the Holocaust - was interesting, but also incredibly dragged out and predictable.  Oh well, I finished an afghan while listening to it, and it wasn't horrible....there were some beautifully written descriptive passages.

from Goodreads:  Thirty-four-year-old Eleanor Murray is consumed with guilt for causing the accident that paralyzed her sister—and for falling in love with her sister’s husband. But when her boss offers her a part-time job caring for his elderly aunt, Helena, Eleanor accepts, hoping this good deed will help atone for her mistakes.

On the barrier island of Edisto, Eleanor bonds with Helena over their mutual love of music. Drawing the older woman out of her depression, Eleanor learns of her life in Hungary, with her sister, before and during World War II. She hears tales of passion and heartache, defiance and dangerous deception. And when the truth of Helena and her sister’s actions comes to light, Eleanor may finally allow herself to move past guilt and to embrace the song that lies deep in her heart