(4) YA Friddell tells the story of Virginia Hall, a Baltimore native who faced incredible danger as a British spy for the French resistance in World War II. Although the free-verse narrative style can be distracting, it paints a compelling portrait of a woman who refused to let her gender, nationality, or disability (an amputated leg) stop her from fighting for freedom in Europe. Black-and-white photos, from the war and from Virginia’s life, are interspersed.

Reviewer: Rachel L. Kerns

(2) 4-6 It's June 1941 in West Branch, Iowa, and twelve-year-old Peggy's summer becomes marked by two secrets. The first is that she's fallen for Gunther, who is handsome, older (sixteen), and, most importantly, from away. A German Jew, Gunther is staying at a local refugee hostel run by Quakers. The second secret, involving Peggy's cousin and close friend, Delia, is more complicated. Delia has leukemia and has at most six months to live, but this reality is being withheld from the sick girl, who believes that she's simply anemic. The events of the summer and fall -- first love, revelations at the hostel against a background of war -- all play out within the context of Peggy's guilt, anger, resentment, confusion, preemptive grieving, and doomed determination to "fix" her cousin. By the end of six months, she has confronted the difficult truth that the distinctions among stories, lies, and history are not as clear as she had assumed. Bouwman's (Gossamer Summer, rev. 7/23) writing is crisp and specific, painting a convincing picture of rural life of the period, and she stays firmly in the consciousness of her spirited, questing, analytical, mathematically inclined heroine.

Reviewer: Sarah Ellis | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2025

(2) YA In this ambitious work, Bray alternates three seemingly disparate stories, briefly braiding them into one near the novel's end. In 1940s Germany, Sophie and Hanna are devotees of the Bridegroom's Oak, a hollow tree famed as a post box for exchanging love letters. As the Nazi regime becomes increasingly brutal and the girls work for the resistance, what better use for it than as a drop for forged documents? In the 1980s, overprotected Texan teen Jenny, who has moved with her family to West Berlin, takes on a new, rebellious life when she falls in love with punk band founder Lena, who is determined to pull off a dangerous rescue in East Berlin. And in 2020s Brooklyn, under COVID-19 lockdown, Miles and Chloe use their Zoom meetings to translate clippings and letters belonging to Chloe's German grandmother. The novel's strength lies in Bray's careful characterization of Sophie and Hanna and in the suspenseful life-or-death stakes of their story, generating momentum for the three-strand plot: how are the girls connected to characters in Berlin and Brooklyn? Thematic connections among the three milieux are patent, from fascist "making Germany great again" to perilously restrictive communist East Germany to the murder of George Floyd. Occasional peculiarities of expression ("one day, that fish who had been a boy would grow into a great whale") appear in writing that is generally sharply effective. Throughout, Bray stresses the value of resistance to "our flawed world's inhumanity, intolerance, and authoritarianism" by means of "acts both large and small."

Reviewer: Deirdre F. Baker | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2025

(1) YA This deeply personal and poetic graphic novel illustrates the heroic actions of everyday Dutch people as they resisted the Nazi regime, as well as the lingering trauma inherited by subsequent generations. An omniscient blackbird with the ability to "sail between time and place" guides readers, and at times the characters, through the events of two seemingly disparate timelines. In 1943, headstrong Dutch university student Emma becomes involved in the covert relocation of Jewish children. When a group of defiant artists recruits Emma to participate in the forging and transportation of official documents, the stakes escalate with deadly consequences. In 2011, Annick, a young woman living in Amsterdam, sets out on an unexpected journey through her family's complicated WWII history, uncovering her ill grandmother's long-lost brother (and potential bone marrow donor). Art (embodied by the blackbird) as an act of defiance and source of inspiration is central to the story, with a series of handmade prints serving as a catalyst for revealing hard truths, merging past with present. The present-tense prose and print-block style digital illustrations are equally expressive, often hinting at meaning through an evocative phrase or dramatic shift in page layout. Van Lieshout seamlessly integrates black-and-white photographs, many from the actual resistance group Underground Camera, into panels and layouts. Extensive back matter highlights the real-life individuals and events that inspired and informed the narrative.

Reviewer: Patrick Gall | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2025

(1) 4-6 Operation Kinderspion series. From the moment eleven-year-old Max Bretzfeld arrives in England as a Jewish evacuee from WWII Germany (accompanied by two immortal, opinionated, and invisible-to-others creatures, a kobold and a dybbuk), his overriding desire is to return to Berlin. The preternaturally clever, resourceful Max has always protected his gentle parents, practiced as he is at anticipating the actions of bullies and staying ahead of their next moves. Who now will protect his parents from the Nazis? When he realizes that one of the men in his Jewish foster family works for British Naval Intelligence, he resolves to find a way to use that connection to be accepted as an undercover agent and sent back to Germany. Clearly, Gidwitz's (The Inquisitor's Tale, rev. 11/16) story calls for a great deal of suspension of disbelief, but the unlikely and fantastical elements are balanced by a rich and realistic depiction of WWII London, from the snobbery of life at an elite boys' school (including entrenched antisemitism) to the Blitz. Max's training as a spy is described in riveting detail, with readers rooting for the determined boy even as we know the dangers awaiting him if he passes the test. A cliffhanger ending (a sequel is promised) adds even more tension. An author's note gives more background on the historical and folkloric figures, settings, and events of the novel; an annotated bibliography is appended.

Reviewer: Martha V. Parravano | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2024

(2) 4-6 This graphic-format biography of Japanese American artist Asawa (1926 2013) begins on December 7, 1941, as teenage Ruth and her farming family hear that Japan has attacked Pearl Harbor. Soon the FBI arrests her father ("They think he's dangerous? He can't even kill a chicken for dinner"), and the rest of the family are sent to Santa Anita Racetrack, where they must sleep in horse stables. But luckily for Ruth, interned Disney animators are teaching drawing classes. "Everything was gray until I met the cartoonists...Truly, art saved me." After the family is sent to the Rohwer Relocation Center in Arkansas, Ruth receives a college scholarship. She studies art education in Milwaukee -- then isn't allowed to graduate; the war has ended, but prejudice hasn't. At the experimental Black Mountain College in North Carolina, Ruth thrives and begins working on the wire sculptures for which she becomes so well known. A theme throughout is Ruth's sheer determination -- to not become a farmer; to study art; to marry the white man she loved despite their families' disapproval, to have children ("I want six") and still be an artist. Gratifyingly, the book closes with her doing just that. Nakahira's black-and-white illustrations, clear and direct, allow viewers to see both the helplessness and courage of those who were forcibly incarcerated. The art is also ideal for illuminating the lines, shapes, and empty spaces of Asawa's famous wire sculptures. Appended are further biographical information, a reading list, and photos of the artist and her work.

Reviewer: Jennifer M. Brabander | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2024

(2) 4-6 In 1942, French police in Occupied Paris rounded up over thirteen thousand French Jews and corralled them into a stadium; almost all perished at Auschwitz. Bradley's (The War That Saved My Life, rev. 1/15, and sequel) story begins just before the Jews are forced into the stadium, and Miri's neighbor thrusts her toddler into Miri's arms and tells her to run. Thanks to compassionate, quick-thinking nuns, the two end up in a village near Catherine de Medici's sixteenth-century castle, Chenonceau. Hiding in plain sight among summer boarders at a convent school, Miri (now known as Marie) grows familiar with the castle -- and with a ghost visible only to her, of Catherine de Medici herself. When Miri gets involved in rescuing refugees, Catherine repeatedly steps in to help her out. This is an engaging, imaginative yarn, and Miri's vulnerability and sense of responsibility give it emotional weight and contemporary appeal -- despite, or perhaps because of, the ways it stretches credulity. Given the ease of a few elements as well as a helpful ghost and Miri's talkativeness -- even when hiding from German soldiers only a few feet away -- the novel is something of an unlikely confection, like the fairy tale–esque castle at its center. Best read in tandem with more straightforward Holocaust accounts.`

Reviewer: Deirdre F. Baker | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2024

(2) 4-6 When contemporary twelve-year-olds Henry, Frances, and Lukas dig up an old radio in one of their backyards, they find themselves speaking with children of the same age, and at the same location, in 1944. Alice, Lawrence, and Artie do not know the outcome of World War II, and they certainly do not understand the consequences of interfering with a timeline. Soon enough, small, seemingly heroic actions, such as stopping a fire at a beloved candy shop, start to mess with history in very serious ways. The U.S., in 2023, changes overnight to a nightmarish new reality in which the Nazis won WWII and now control the country, renamed Westfallen. The kids from the present and the past must team up to undo the colossal damage that has been done, stopping a spy and thus righting their mistakes, before Westfallen becomes a permanent reality. But that escapade is only the beginning of an adventure that will challenge readers to consider the past, the future, and the nature of history itself. Fascinating time-travel theories collide with historical fiction to set the scene for a story that is suspenseful, complex, and at times humorous. Rapid shifts between past and present might be confusing at first, but as the plot picks up, the details coalesce to form one seamless narrative. The cliffhanger ending will leave readers eager for the next installment in a projected series.

Reviewer: Sarah Berman | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2024

(1) YA Bletchley Park, a World War II cryptology center, operated in the English countryside where an extensive and complicated code-breaking operation allowed the Allies to decipher secret messages sent through German Enigma machines. Those transmissions included enemy plans for naval attacks, ship locations, ground positions, and bombing targets, and Fleming (Crash from Outer Space, rev. 11/22, among many others) reveals that the feat of decoding the thousands of pieces of information every day was largely executed by teenage girls and young women. Recruited with little or no knowledge of what their jobs would be, the code breakers were sworn to secrecy--an oath that would remain unbroken for over thirty years. Fleming's account focuses on ten such young women (one of whom is an offsite radio operator) but, in a masterful presentation of related subject matter, seamlessly intersperses segments on larger historical events, beginning with the Battle of Britain and concluding with V-J Day; clear and thorough explanations of codes and ciphers; and technical advances that led to the use of computers. The girls' personal experiences, from coping with housing shortages, to falling in love, to discovering their future life's work, adds another dimension. Amid the often-tedious work of breaking the ciphers, moments of humanity appear: the joy of pinpointing an enemy bombing target on British soil; the recognition that a freshly bloodstained Nazi cipher book meant "somewhere this German airman was still bleeding, dying maybe...That really did bring the war close." Appended with an author's note, a bibliography of both primary and secondary sources, source notes, and an (unseen) index.

Reviewer: Betty Carter | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2024

(2) YA Readers learn two things at the beginning of this novel: twelve-year-old Alex did something terrible, and he hates the word opportunity. The word has only come up in the worst moments of Alex's life, most recently when his court-mandated social worker arranges for him to volunteer over the summer at the local retirement home full of old people whom Alex thinks are "gross." At Shady Glen, Alex meets bossy kid volunteer Maya-Jade as well as 107-year-old Holocaust survivor Jozef Kravitz, who serves as the story's narrator, though he has an omniscient perspective. Jozef, who has been silent for five years, begins to share with Alex the story of Olka, the love of his life, and the hardships they endured in Nazi-occupied Poland. As Jozef opens up, so does Alex's world; he befriends other residents and Maya-Jade and learns to look beyond the pain, anger, and self-loathing that have been churning inside him ever since his mother's disappearance and his kinship foster care placement. Forman crafts a unique story, told in the voice of a wiser, older character; everything feels close and personal, from Alex's present to Jozef's past. She captures the quietly powerful moments of feeling seen and known, how friendships can make a bleak life feel fresh with possibilities, and how a person's worst moments need not shape their future.

Reviewer: | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2024

(2) 4-6 Thirteen-year-old boys Frank McCoy and Stanley Summers live on Ford Island, a naval base in the middle of Pearl Harbor. They have become fast friends, bonding over a shared interest in comic books. Frank's family recently moved to Hawaii from the mainland, where he is hoping to leave behind not just memories of a traumatic incident but the constant worry and fear that plague him as a result. When Frank doesn't stand up for Stanley during a fight with bullies, it causes a rift in their friendship. Nevertheless, they are both invited to the USS Utah the next day, December 7, 1941, which places them in the thick of things during the attack on Pearl Harbor. While both boys survive the horrific events of that day, they confront a great deal of death as well as mayhem and internal demons. Frank comes to terms with his fear, while Stanley -- whose mother is Japanese -- is already being targeted for harassment. Frank's family is relocated to California shortly afterward and the boys bid a sad farewell, but not before Frank passes a draft of a story for their comic book to Stanley. The novel concludes with the opening scenes of their finished comic book collaboration, published many years in the future. Short chapters and fast pacing with lots of dialogue and action make this an easy recommendation for Gratz fans (Grenade, rev. 11/18; Ground Zero, rev. 3/21; and others). An author's note with additional historical and background information is appended.

Reviewer: Jonathan Hunt | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2024

(2) YA Thirteen-year-old Liv lives with her parents in England. When she's tasked with a family history assignment for school, she decides to investigate her ninety-two-year-old grandmother. While helping Bubbe move into an assisted living facility, Liv discovers a secret chest from her grandmother's past and learns more than she bargained for. A second story unfolds in alternating chapters: twelve-year-old Mila and her older sister, Hannie, live in Holland in 1942, but since they are Jewish and the Nazis have taken over the country, they do not live with their parents. Rather, they have assumed different identities, hiding in plain sight with a non-Jewish foster family in Amsterdam. Hannie gets drawn into the Dutch resistance with grave consequences; she is the titular Kingfisher. It's quickly revealed that Mila is, in fact, Liv's grandmother, but Kessler makes readers wait to learn the entire story, using lots of dialogue, a notably fast pace, four viewpoint characters, and several dozen short chapters to further develop suspense. An engrossing read, one that provides depth to the Dutch experience during the Holocaust beyond Anne Frank and her famous diary.

Reviewer: Jonathan Hunt | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2024

(2) YA At the onset of World War II, German U-boats (submarines) mercilessly sank the military and civilian ships of the Allies, making transatlantic travel a risky endeavor. Americans living abroad had to weigh the risks of remaining in German-occupied territories against the treacherous weeks-long voyage back home. U-boat attacks were unrelenting until late in the war when advances in microwave radar detection allowed the Allies to pinpoint their locations, rendering them virtually useless. As the title suggests, this book divides its focus between the heart-wrenching story of survivors of the torpedoed SS West Lashaway awaiting rescue on a small wooden raft in shark-infested waters and a concise and highly readable history of the science of electromagnetic fields. Beginning with discoveries in the eighteenth century, Lantos provides background on each advancement in the science as well as biographical information about the scientists involved, finally introducing the American military scientists and engineers who figured out how to use microwaves to precisely locate distant objects. He ups the tension by alternating the harrowing experience of the shipwreck survivors with development of the radar equipment that was critical to both their rescue and the Allied victory in WWII. This page-turning account, with archival images and occasional chapter-opening illustrations (by Alan Marks), provides equal parts suspense and wonder for readers of history and science alike. Appended with thorough source notes, a bibliography, and an index.

Reviewer: Eric Carpenter | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2024

(2) YA Elizebeth Smith Friedman (1892–1980) and her husband, William Friedman, "are now recognized together as the two most influential code-breakers in American history." Elizebeth, however, remains largely underappreciated, so Moss shares a fine-spun account of her career and its many impressive contributions (some of which are still classified by the U.S. government). Moss follows the trajectory of this fascinating, singular woman's life (with details about William's work as it parallels Elizebeth's, but without shifting the focus from her) as she solves supposedly unbreakable codes containing enemy plans during both world wars. In between wars, Elizebeth's job at the Treasury Department requires her to risk her safety testifying at high-profile organized-crime trials, gaining unwelcome notoriety in the press. She faces sexism throughout her career, often not receiving proper pay or credit. But Moss emphasizes that Elizebeth -- who proudly leads her own code-breaking team -- doesn't let any of these challenges deter her from doing the work she loves. As in Moss's The Woman Who Split the Atom (rev. 7/22), chapters begin with brief comics by the author that provide visual context for the historical scenes. Hand this to fans of Fleming's recent The Enigma Girls (rev. 5/24). Archival photographs, a helpful "What Are Codes? What Are Ciphers?" section, a glossary, a timeline, notes, a bibliography, and an (unseen) index are appended.

Reviewer: Cynthia K. Ritter | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2024

(2) 4-6 Illustrated by Sammy Savos. At the start of this compelling graphic memoir, four-year-old Enia Feld lives a seemingly carefree life with her loving extended family in 1939 Borek, Poland. Though they are "very, very poor" -- and there are hints of antisemitism and violence to come -- Enia feels safe, secure, and well cared for, her voice constantly lifted in song. "And I thought we would be this happy forever." On September 1, though, Germany invades. The family's rights are continually eroded ("Things changed over the next two years. Slowly") until, inevitably, they are forced to flee for their lives. In five dramatic parts -- Innocence, Hidden, Liberation, A New Beginning, The Girl Who Sang -- this harrowing story is told and shown in clear sequential art that reflects the terror and grief of Enia's experiences in contrast with her early, pastoral-set days. When liberation finally occurs, after years of whispers in hiding, the once-vivacious girl has gone nearly silent, but it's in finding her voice that she is able to begin a new life in America. The history is deeply personal, as related by Nadel (who passed away in November 2023), and her intent is made clear in her concluding note: "I'm not going to be here forever. Someday there will no longer be Holocaust survivors still living...I want you, the young people, the next generation, to carry our stories on." An afterword, family photos, additional resources, an illustrator's note, and details about comics are appended.

Reviewer: Elissa Gershowitz | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2024

(1) YA It's the summer of 1940 in this collaboration between Sepetys (whose historical fiction for older readers includes, recently, I Must Betray You, rev. 5/22) and Sheinkin (primarily nonfiction, recently Impossible Escape, rev. 9/23). Hitler has taken over most of Europe and is about to attack England, as top minds at Bletchley Park, outside of London, race to break German codes that could alert the Allies of Nazi battle plans. Nineteen-year-old Jakob Novis works at Bletchley Park, while his fourteen-year-old sister, Lizzie, is consumed with finding their embassy-worker mother, Willa, presumed dead in the German invasion of Poland in 1939. But Lizzie doesn't believe it. She tracks down clues of her own as the codebreakers race to crack a cipher created by the Nazis' Enigma machine. Secrets build upon secrets, riddles upon riddles, and figuring them out might just save a family, or a world. The fifty riveting final pages are a master class in suspense, as Lizzie risks going to London just as the Luftwaffe readies for their attack on the city. Jakob steals a car to find Lizzie, and as they drive off back to Bletchley after learning shocking revelations about their family, the sky fills with airplanes, "a sinister swarm of evil black birds...Hitler's wrath is descending." With its expert pacing and characterization and its careful delineation of historical and family stories, this is historical fiction at its best. A note and photographs are appended.

Reviewer: Dean Schneider | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2024

(1) 4-6 Illustrated by Christine Norrie. In this graphic novel, a Japanese American girl visiting family outside Hiroshima is trapped there after Japan bombs Pearl Harbor. Amy's sosobo (great-grandmother), whose underwater pearl-diving feats are beloved family lore, urges the girl to learn survival, just as she had to. Amy does survive, even as life gets more and more brutal. When the Japanese military in Hiroshima makes her translate American radio broadcasts, Amy feels like a traitor -- until she learns that her parents are in an American prison camp and that her baby brother has died. Amy is devastated, but Sosobo, on her deathbed, still insists Amy survive, and even thrive, because "life is a treasure." In 1945, Amy is released from work -- just as the bomb is dropped on Hiroshima. She lives, barely (a friend dies in her arms), and is later asked by the Americans to transcribe other survivors' stories; a haunting full-page panel shows a bomb cloud of papers rising from her typewriter as people share their experiences. Eleven years after arriving in Japan, Amy is finally allowed to return to her parents, who have survived. Her fight to endure is fittingly depicted as an underwater tussle with death and a triumphant return to the surface holding aloft a treasure -- a giant pearl. Black-and-white illustrations colored with a solemn slate blue make expert use of the format to tell this painful and little-known history of Japanese American "strandees" whose stories often went untold for fear of American retaliation against "traitors."

Reviewer: Jennifer M. Brabander | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2024

(2) YA Smith (The Blossom and the Firefly, rev. 3/20) and Wein (Stateless, rev. 3/23) introduce readers to the Black men and women who fought to desegregate aviation. The book opens in 1919 with fifteen-year-old Cornelius Coffey attempting to take his first plane ride at an air show in Nebraska. The pilot reluctantly takes the young Black man up and tries to discourage him with daredevil antics -- but Coffey loves it and knows he wants to fly. Fast forward: Coffey meets Johnny Robinson, a Black mechanic who also longs to be a pilot. The two move to Chicago and apply to the Curtiss-Wright School of Aviation. They are accepted -- but then not allowed to enroll after the school finds out they are Black. Following much struggle, Coffey and Robinson are admitted in 1929 and complete their course. With two other young Black aspiring pilots, Janet Harmon Bragg and Willa Brown, they open an aviation school for Black students. Along with the experiences of each individual pilot, there is also a thorough discussion of the historical context surrounding them, including the Great Depression and WWII. Photographs of Coffey, Robinson, Harmon Bragg, and Brown appear throughout the text. An authors' note explains the research process, and source notes are provided for this thorough and absorbingly written history of the early days of aviation.

Reviewer: Nicholl Denice Montgomery | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2024

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Edwin Fotheringham. "On a North Carolina farm, massive towers with moving parts spin and sound in the breeze. Did space aliens create these contraptions?" At the opening of this picture-book biography, a tangle of colors and shapes and a burst of visual onomatopoeia ("WHIRR, CREEEAK. Plink, plink") introduce readers to the plucky machinist and inventor Vollis Simpson (1919–2013) and his "whirligigs." The narrative shows how his childhood interest in the mechanics of objects established his career path: "Vollis aimed to make machines work better." Illustrations add to the down-home feel of the story while helping readers visualize some of Simpson's more original improvements, such as a wind-powered washing machine invented during WWII using parts from a downed B-29 bomber. An injury in his sixties forces Simpson to close his machine-repair shop and ultimately propels him, "bored as a two by four," to begin making the colorful whirligig windmills that will become his legacy. Color and sound ("Whistle, Whir, BOING, BOING") keep the story energetic and busy to match the spirit of its subject, and the illustrations become ever more fanciful as Simpson's windmill farm grows. Back matter includes an author's note, a bibliography, and the lyrics to "Vollis Simpson's Windmill Farm" (to the tune of "Old MacDonald").

Reviewer: Julie Roach | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2025

(1) YA In this historical novel set in Czernowitz, Romania, thirteen-year-old Rieke and her beautiful, headstrong older sister, Astra, live with their depressive mother and religiously observant grandfather, Opa, a jeweler and business owner. As antisemitic fervor mounts, the family is seen by those in power as being part of "the Jewish problem." The girls are denied access to public school, Opa's business is vandalized, and their lives and livelihood are threatened. Things go from terrible to worse as the city is occupied first by the Soviets, then by the Germans a year later. The family is forced to leave their home, and Jews from around the city are rounded up into a ghetto with no heat, electricity, or water. Rieke's lingering cough is confirmed as tuberculosis, and she seems destined to perish until a friend of her estranged father steps in to provide financial support; horrifyingly, he rapes her in the process. The teen begins to heal, finds her voice, and strengthens her resolve, until her beloved grandfather's murder threatens to break her spirit. Arnold's (Red Hood, rev. 5/20) compelling and well-researched narrative is deeply personal, respectful, and redemptive; through story, she bears witness. Her depiction of Rieke's experiences allows readers to truly feel how the horrors of war give the character many reasons to hate as well as to discover her enormous capacity to love. Front and back matter establish a connection to Arnold's grandmother's memories from Romania and provide photos and a reading list.

Reviewer: Luann Toth | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2023