(2) 4-6 Another real-life, courageous, boundary-pushing woman gets some well-deserved attention in Atkins's (Grasping M­ysteries, rev. 11/20; Finding Wonders, rev. 7/16) novel in verse. Readers first meet Jewish physicist Lise Meitner (1878–1968) as she "aches to taste hope," clutching fake papers aboard a train at the German border in 1938. Atkins then leaves her audience in suspense and backtracks to Meitner's childhood in Austria, as she chafes against restrictions preventing girls from formal schooling after age thirteen. When the University of Vienna finally opens its doors to women, Meitner is the only female physics student. After earning a PhD and publishing her work on radiation, she moves to Berlin and begins ­conducting unpaid research in a makeshift basement laboratory. Vivid and ­poignant, Atkins's poems chronicle Meitner's hesitation to abandon her experiments and flee Germany after Hitler's rise to power; her horror at realizing her role in the creation of the atomic bomb; and her disappointment that her longtime male collaborator received the Nobel Prize for their shared discovery of nuclear fission, while she was snubbed. Atkins meshes "facts with empathy" in this stirring portrait of--as Meitner's epitaph reads--"A Physicist Who Never Lost Her Humanity." An author's note, a timeline, an annotated list of Meitner's colleagues, and a selected bibliography are appended.

Reviewer: Tanya D. Auger | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2022

(2) 4-6 Translated by Sylvia Notini. Illustrated by Jess Mason. In a direct, first-person account (adapted from her adult book Una bambina e basta), Levi relates what happened to her and her family under the rule of Mussolini and during World War II. Brief chapters, short sentences, and a simple vocabulary give this the air of a child's voice, but the quick, deft storytelling is that of a gifted, experienced narrator. The story starts in Turin, but when restrictions are imposed on Jewish Italians, Lia's family moves first to Milan and then to Rome, where Papa finds work. When the Germans occupy Rome, Lia and her sisters are hidden at a Catholic boarding school, and Papa and Mama go into hiding. Lia's impressions of her different schools, new friendships, and the conditions war brings about ("One egg for three people: that's just one of the little tricks that war can play on you") speak to children's interests, and the author's conversational style has just the right tone to make readers feel the narrator is addressing them personally. The main narrative is occasionally interrupted by "dear reader" notes--explanations and reassurances to soften the suspense of a terrifying time. Mason's soft black-and-white illustrations make these switches clear and meaningful, as she moves from images of the youthful Lia to Lia as a grandmother, a testament of survival and Jewish cultural continuity.

Reviewer: Deirdre F. Baker | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2022

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Yas Imamura. Amid choking dust and surrounded by barbed wire, Tama lives a life made meaningful by words: she is the librarian at Minidoka, a Japanese American internment camp. Tama and her family survive constant worries and fear; unjust conditions (muddy paths to communal latrines, shared single-room housing); and stalled lives and plans. Tama finds solace in the worlds within books, and she has a friend, George, a constant presence in the library with his big voice and smile. Eventually they get married and have a child, making a "miraculous" life together in such a place. Full-spread gouache and watercolor illustrations along with smaller vignettes immerse viewers in camp life, depicting its hardships without overwhelming young readers. An earth-toned palette nevertheless remains light and hopeful, symbolized by details such as a vase of sunny flowers and a butterfly. Each individual depicted in the illustrations appears distinct (resisting stereotypes about people of color's supposed resemblance); their experiences are unique as well, as people are shown with their own belongings and varied clothing amidst the common horror of the camp. An appended author's note provides additional background and depth to the story, which was based on the author's grandparents' experiences, and also touches on other populations' struggles with hate and oppression throughout modern history.

Reviewer: J. Elizabeth Mills | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2022

(2) 4-6 Cushman (The Ballad of Lucy Whipple) sets her WWII home front novel in 1941 San Diego, where feisty and headstrong Millie McGonigle is coping with...a lot. Grief at the recent death of her beloved grandmother. Gloom over the state of the world, "full of war and death." Jealousy of her sickly younger sister, who takes up all their mother's time and attention. Right before Gram died, she gave Millie a notebook and told her to use it to "remember the good things in this world...Things that seem lost or dead--keep them alive and safe in your book." Millie turns the journal into "The Book of Dead Things," recording every loss she hears about, every dead sand crab she finds on the beach, in an effort to avert disaster and keep her worst fears from happening. A new friendship, a growing warmth between Millie and her little sister, and a revised understanding of Gram's advice--not to obsess about death, but to recognize and embrace life--begin to ease Millie's pain. ­Cushman offers readers a sympathetic, spirited heroine and a vividly evoked setting, chock-full of ­sensory detail. "I...sniffed deeply of the rich, salty, fishy smell of the mud. Gulls screeched like rusty hinges as they soared above me, and flocks of curlews and sandpipers scratched for bugs for breakfasts. There was plenty of life on the bay but a peaceful stillness, too, that ­comforted me when I needed comforting." Hand this to fans of books such as Jennifer L. Holm's Our Only May Amelia (1999) and Turtle in Paradise (rev. 5/10).

Reviewer: Martha V. Parravano | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2021

(2) 4-6 Hopkinson (Courage & Defiance, rev. 11/15; Dive!, rev. 9/16; and others) continues to build an impressive body of work about World War II with these accounts of children and their families caught up in the Holocaust in Germany, the Netherlands, France, and Poland. "To Give the Dead a Voice" is her theme, as she weaves a rich third-person narrative with numerous first-person accounts. There's Eva Lauffer and Martin Deutschkron hiding in Berlin "under the noses of the Nazis," Max Liebmann escaping over the mountains to Switzerland aided by a young French boy, and Paula Burger and her brother Isaac hiding in rain barrels and escaping the Novogrudek ghetto with the help of a Polish farmer and the Bielski Partisans. Hopkinson has created a rich resource for teachers, librarians, and students--an effective melding of narratives; well-selected black-and-white photographs with informative captions; maps; and especially useful "Look, Listen, Remember" sidebars that provide links to interviews with many of the survivors. Extensive back matter includes a glossary, a timeline, and "Museum Websites and Online Resources." The source notes demonstrate the thorough research underlying the volume.

Reviewer: Dean Schneider | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2021

(2) 4-6 Translated by Emily Balistrieri. This is a moving, somber look at the 1945 Hiroshima nuclear bombing, seen mostly through the eyes of ­Hiroshima junior high school students--"second-­generation atomic-bomb survivors"--as they attend the 1970 Peace ­Memorial ceremony and prepare for a cultural festival. Friends Nozomi, Shun, and Kozo have a vague idea of what happened during World War II, but they become more curious when Nozomi has an unsettling encounter with an elderly woman who seems to mistake her for someone else. Then their beloved art teacher, Mr. Yoshioka, a former soldier, leaves school due to long-term sickness possibly connected to radiation exposure. The students create an art exhibit highlighting Hiroshima's past and present and interview relatives and neighbors about their experiences. Many of their stories are interspersed throughout the text, turning the novel into a tale about wartime trauma and how art and story can channel empathy, memory, and remembrance. The book also touches upon the issue of complicity and regret when Mr. Yoshioka tells his students that the Japanese people were both aggressors and victims in the war and asks, "How...will we be able to make up for these crimes, to heal these wounds?" The answer, he says, is for future generations to learn from past mistakes, to never be bystanders, and to never forget. Appended with notes about the bombing of Hiroshima and the lantern floating ceremony.

Reviewer: Michelle Lee | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2021

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Julie Kwon. As a child, Hazel Ying Lee (1912–1944) pushed limits to be the best at everything--the fastest at footraces, the hardest hitter in handball, and, she hoped, one day the first Chinese American woman pilot. The sky called to her, and during her first airplane trips, she let the gender and racial discrimination she experienced on the ground fall away. The text chronicles her flying career: working as an elevator operator to pay for lessons; earning her license in less than a year; when WWII began, joining the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs) program, testing planes before they went to military pilots. A tragic crash ended Lee's career (and life) at a young age, though her legacy lives on. Leung's poetic text vividly conveys Lee's fascination with and passion for flying and breaking boundaries without fear, as well as her perseverance and optimism for a better world. Kwon's clear, earth-toned, full-bleed illustrations expand on the story, illuminating Lee's unique experiences and capturing her adventurous spirit. Striking perspectives offer bird's-eye views of the patchwork landscapes over which Lee flew. Back matter includes an extensive author's note as well as additional multimedia resources. An excellent portrayal of a fearless flyer.

Reviewer: J. Elizabeth Mills | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2021

(1) 4-6 McKay plunges us back into the doings of the Penrose family (Love to Everyone, rev. 11/18), this time exploring the lives of the generation born between the world wars. The story spans almost twenty years as we move between Kate in Oxford, Ruby in Plymouth (Clarry's goddaughters, both), and two German boys in Berlin--best friends Erik and Hans--as they deal with siblings and families, grapple with their own fears and desires, and meet the challenges of drastically changing times as World War II descends. McKay has a positive genius for the tight dovetail of character, incident, and plot: as these lives become entwined, that genius is everywhere at work--from the novel's first sentence ("One summer, when he was ten years old, Erik became famous for buying dead flies") to Ruby's distress about her facial birthmarks, to the story's moving, satisfying conclusion. Precise, evocative detail ("Every leaf was heavy with dew, and the flowers hung like wet laundry") gives this a persistent, vivid freshness, but even more fresh and compelling is McKay's compassionate, sometimes humorous, take on human character and her understanding of youthful feelings.

Reviewer: Deirdre F. Baker | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2021

(2) 4-6 Narrator Simona is eight years old in 1940, and her younger sister five, when they leave their home outside Rome for Tokyo--their father has been hired as chef at the Italian embassy. The girls must quickly learn a new language and new customs--and although they come to love Japan, as Westerners their friends are few. As WWII approaches and then intensifies, life in Tokyo deteriorates, with food and clothing scarcities; classmates' brothers and fathers lost to war; school concerned with propaganda rather than learning. Then, in 1943, Italy surrenders--and Simona's family is now the enemy. From here, the novel becomes a survival story. The girls are separated from their father and sent to a starvation-level internment camp; escape and are rescued by a household of anti-war activists; they return, after the women's home is raided, to Tokyo, where they find refuge with a blind washerwoman; and finally, fatefully, end up in a Catholic mission in Hiroshima. Throughout, what saves them are Simona's strength and determination but also the sisters' assimilation into and respect for Japanese culture: at the camp, their politeness earns them life-saving tidbits from the kitchen; needing to buy train tickets back to Tokyo, they speak the language so well they pass for Japanese. Simona's eight-year-old voice is the same as her adult voice (the novel ends with a final chapter set in 1965), but readers may overlook this quibble as they immerse themselves in Napoli's story, told with immediacy, compassion, and nuance. A note describing the author's research and an extensive bibliography are appended.

Reviewer: Martha V. Parravano | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2021

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Daniel Duncan. Text and pictures work together to capture the life and spirit of a remarkable woman. As a child in England, Beatrice ­Shilling (1909–1990) "wasn't quite like" other children, preferring tools to candy. She grew up to be so clever with tools and so interested in fixing engines and machines that at fourteen she bought and rebuilt her own motorcycle; was later accepted to university to study engineering (art shows Beatrice walking into a room full of men as the text states that she "wasn't quite like" the other students); and subsequently got a job in the Royal Aircraft Establishment. During WWII, when it was discovered that Spitfire and Hurricane planes had a fatal flaw in their fuel delivery systems that caused the engines to fail in crucial moments, it was Beatrice who solved the problem. She devised a simple restrictor--"a little piece of metal with a hole in it"--that was cheap and easy to install. "When Beatrice roared up on her motorcycle with her bag full of tools, pilots knew they didn't have to worry anymore." The text is lively and succinct, full of vigorous action verbs. The expressive illustrations convey time and place beautifully and are infused variously with humor (such as when apprentice-engineer Beatrice, helping to bring electricity to villages, falls through a ceiling) and drama (as in a stunning double-page spread of London aflame during the Blitz). An author's note stresses the support Shilling received from individual women and women's ­organizations, enabling her to break through the barriers she faced; a list of selected sources completes the book.

Reviewer: Martha V. Parravano | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2021

(2) 4-6 It is London 1945, and Charlie's beloved elder brother Theo returns from the war. Theo is suffering from what would now be called PTSD, and Charlie, devastated by Theo's condition, is determined to "fix" him and return the family to pre-war normal. On the Blitz-ravaged streets of London, Charlie meets up with a set of huge, powerful, and malevolent spirit wolves, invisible to all except Charlie. The wolves (with names such as Regret and Remembrance) have eaten the hearts of despairing returned soldiers; thus the "hollow chest" of the title. The creatures direct Charlie to a series of dangerous tasks involving cleverness, bravery, and self-sacrifice. With the support of a hospitalized war veteran, a kindly nurse, and a neighborhood eccentric, Charlie attempts to restore his brother's heart without endangering his own. In a lush, simile-studded narrative Sandstrom invokes metaphor, mental illness, fairy tale, quest adventure, and fantasy as she fully inhabits her troubled young character. She is less sure-footed in the domestic details of mid-century lower-middle-class English life, with terminology and tea-making needing a bit more research. The central idea, however, of the "wolves of war" and how they slink around long after armistice is deftly realized, and as relevant as ever.

Reviewer: Sarah Ellis | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2021

(2) YA The school board has cut funding for football at Ironville Middle School, but Ms. B hopes her new eSports club might "give students something else to focus on. ­Something to get excited about." After all, the eight shiny new gaming computers she has gotten through a ­technology grant for low-income schools aren't costing the school anything, and the students are sure to love playing a World War II simulation game pitting the Allies against the Axis. But that game soon spirals out of control. Axis members walk the hallways wearing gray shirts and Iron Crosses and talking in fake German accents. Chat rooms resound with "Long live the Axis. Sieg Heil!" And when Ally member Emma puts on her headphones, she hears sounds of boots marching, crashes of cymbals and drums, and someone (presumably Hitler) giving a passionate speech in German. Her monitor displays Iron Crosses, swastikas, burning crosses, and nooses. The Good War has become more than a game; "evil has seeped into the real world." Strasser revisits themes from his now-classic The Wave (1981), a fictionalized account of an actual 1967 history class simulation that went too far. The prose is simple, the themes heady, and the conflicts intense, all balanced by an in-your-face encounter with the worst of middle-school life: bullying, cheating, boys spitting loogies onto the ceiling of the "pissorium," and cellphone-obsessed students pursuing their meanness 24/7 on social media. It's a quick read and a thought-provoking reflection of the underbelly of our times.

Reviewer: Dean Schneider | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2021

(1) K-3 At the end of 1938, when the Germans invaded the border region of Czechoslovakia, a young Englishman named Nicky arranged for the transport of 669 children from there to England, where they were settled with families to live out the war. In this remarkable book, Sís weaves Nicky's story with that of Vera, a Czech child who was one of those Nicky saved. The story does not end with the transport but includes the post-war years as Vera returns to Czechoslovakia in search of her parents and cousins (none survived) and returns to England for good; and as Nicky's quiet, productive life unfolds. Sís tells this multi-stranded tale in prose that is as understated as Nicholas Winton (as Nicky is eventually identified in the back matter) was himself and in illustrations that capture the complexity and heartbreaking emotion of the tale. For example, Vera kept a diary during the war, and Sís illustrates the years during which Vera lived with her foster family against a grid of diary pages; small squares include drawings such as a child with a violin, fish and chips, and a radio, all representing her years growing up in England. On subsequent pages, text overlays more journal pages, these covered with minuscule handwriting as time passes and Vera searches for family. In a final spread, when an elderly Nicholas Winton is publicly recognized for his quiet heroism and introduced to the adults he saved as children, each adult faces a seated Winton, and, inside each outline, Sís has drawn the child they were when they left Czechoslovakia. This is an exceptional story told with a powerful combination of words and pictures to engage both those who know some history of the Holocaust and those new to the topic. An appended note tells more about Nicholas Winton and Vera Diamantova.

Reviewer: Maeve Visser Knoth | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2021

(2) K-3 Translated by Annette Appel. Illustrated by Avi Ofer. A teddy bear on display in Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust museum, narrates this picture book based on a true story from the Holocaust. The stuffed bear recalls his journey with young owner Fred from their home in Delft, Holland, to Fred's grandfather's house in Amsterdam--the family has been warned that "people would come and force us to leave"--and eventually to a stranger's home for the duration of the war. Short lines of text are surrounded by plenty of white space. The loose-lined, digital illustrations are similarly spare, though the light brown of the visibly well-loved Bear and the yellow of the stars sewn onto Jewish characters' clothing stand out. That the events are seen through innocent eyes allows for the posing of basic questions: "Why did we have to hide?" and "Why couldn't [Fred] tell anyone who he was? Did he do something bad?" A historical note at the front provides more specific information about the Holocaust, making the book useful as a discussion starter for those new to this part of history. Back matter includes an author's note and a letter from "Fred's Bear" (complete with photo), establishing both title characters as real figures.

Reviewer: Shoshana Flax | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2020

(2) YA Immediately following WWII, sixteen-year-old German girl Katja and her sister Hilde become refugees and orphans after a Soviet soldier shoots their mother, blaming her for something Katja said. Katja and Hilde find a place to stay with a farming family, telling the family that the girls' mother is alive and will come to collect them soon. As Katja contends with, and attempts to process, more violence from the Soviet army (including the rape of a secondary character), perpetrated in the name of vengeance, she is dismayed to learn about the extent of the atrocities committed by her own country during the war. For example, she (perhaps willfully, as Hilde suggests) hadn't fully grasped the danger from the Nazis in sneaking to her beloved lessons at her Jewish music teacher's home. Barker sheds light on a rarely portrayed aspect of WWII's aftermath (see also Maria Kiely's Which Way Is Home?, reviewed on page 140). Her expressive writing helps bring readers into Katja's head ("My arms shook. I held them as high as I could, as if higher meant Yes, I surrender even more"), though Katja's naiveté and continued impulsivity, including vandalizing a Soviet officer's car, might have been more believable and sympathetic in a younger character. An author's note discusses the time period and Barker's reasons for writing about it: "to ask tough questions and face unsettling truths."

Reviewer: Shoshana Flax | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2020

(2) 4-6 Translated by Ivanka Hahnenberger. Illustrated by Claire Fauvel. This graphic novel (adapted from a novel by Billet and inspired by her mother's life) follows teenage Rachel Cohen from one place to another in WWII France. By changing her name to Catherine Colin and hiding her Jewish identity, she is able to live at schools and an orphanage as well as with families throughout the ­occupied and free zones, moving whenever Nazi suspicion encroaches--and always documenting her experiences with her Rolleiflex camera. Though the story covers Rachel/Catherine's adolescence, the smoothly translated text is clear enough, and gentle enough in its explanations of the Holocaust, to be comprehensible to readers younger than the character. Themes of self-expression--Catherine's photography is a rare constant in a life overwhelmed by change--will likely resonate with a wide variety of readers. The back matter is pitched to explain this story's context to young people with little or no background knowledge about WWII or the Holocaust, though readers familiar with the basics may learn something new about this specific setting. Fauvel's borderless, color-saturated panels shift in palette by location, with red-and-black darkroom scenes standing out, particularly against the black-and-white photos produced in them.

Reviewer: Shoshana Flax | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2020

(2) YA Chee follows up her successful fantasy trilogy (The Reader and sequels) with this very different work of historical fiction, drawing on her personal family and cultural history for a story of World War II. Beginning in March 1942, three months after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, fourteen young people--all but one from San Francisco's Japantown--chronicle, in interlinked stories, their lives over the course of the next three years. Their first-person, present-tense narratives depict a multiplicity of thoughts, feelings, and experiences, particularly regarding the unjust treatment of Japanese American citizens before, during, and after incarceration in internment camps. The result is slightly disorienting as characters come and go, but the overall effect is nuanced and kaleidoscopic. Gaman is a Japanese word for endurance, a dignified response to adversity; it's a characteristic most of these young adults exhibit in one form or another: "The ability to hold your pain and bitterness inside you and not let them destroy you. To make something beautiful through your anger, or with your anger, and neither erase it nor let it define you. To suffer. And to rage. And to persevere." Various graphic elements connect the story to its historical period (drawings, photographs, maps, postcards, telegrams, and newspaper articles), while the author's note grounds it in Chee's extensive research and family experience.

Reviewer: Jonathan Hunt | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2020

(2) 4-6 In free-verse poems, Frost tells the story of Henry, deafened by disease in 1937 at age four. Because Henry is deemed "unteachable" by the School for the Deaf, his family is pressured to consign him at age six to a residential institution for the "feeble-minded," a dumping ground for those with a variety of cognitive and physical issues. Through his own intelligence and good nature, Henry makes friends and survives this place of scarcity and lovelessness. And once the United States enters World War II, a compassionate conscientious objector joins the staff, bringing hope for Henry's return to his family. Frost's short poems sketch Henry's story through clips of his experiences, conveying his limited understanding of what is going on around him. But she also frames his experience within a larger context--of the family that is too poor and cowed to care for him, and of the role conscientious objectors played during the war. This is a quick read, full of historical richness and glimpses of the cruelty and abuse so common in the institutions of the era. Frost's interpretation is softened by the hopeful conclusion of Henry's return home and his introduction to American Sign Language.

Reviewer: Deirdre F. Baker | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2020

(2) YA The Edelweiss Pirates were groups of German youth who protested the Nazi regime through actions ranging from simple mischief and propaganda all the way up to sabotage. Because they were generally poor--and poorly organized--they, according to Gaddy, have not been properly recognized by scholars as being part of the resistance movement. This book aims to shed light on their efforts by weaving together the stories of three young people--Gertrud, Fritz, and Jean--in and around the city of Cologne from 1932 to 1945. Over those dozen-plus years, conflicts escalate, from them pulling pranks on the Hitler Youth to their prolonged interrogation at the hands of the SS. The three teens convey their unique but shared experiences, rendering a history that is at once familiar and new. Drawing on primary sources such as memoirs, interviews, government documents, and archival photographs, Gaddy unflinchingly chronicles Germany's harrowing and inexorable embrace of fascism and the brave young people who struggled against its tyranny. A final chapter leaps forward in time to discuss the current legacy of the Edelweiss Pirates. This book stands next to Hoose's The Boys Who Challenged Hitler (rev. 7/15) and Freedman's We Will Not Be Silent (rev. 5/16) as a testament to those young people who resisted the Nazis. A "Persons of Interest" list begins the book; an author's note, source notes, bibliography, and index are appended.

Reviewer: Jonathan Hunt | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2020

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Britta Teckentrup. The titular dwelling was the weekend home of Harding's great-grandparents in Germany, built by his great-grandfather nearly a century ago. Readers experience the peace and idyll of the place, inhabited by "a kind doctor and his cheery wife" and their four children; several spreads of lyrical text and serene illustrations depict a warm-hearted, carefree, sun-dappled setting. It's not long, however, before the Nazis descend, forcing the family from their home. A new family arrives, "carrying suitcases and musical instruments and love," but the war soon means that they, too, must leave rather than fight for the Nazis. The house is once again empty--then it's temporarily used as a shelter for those fleeing persecution; then it's witness to the Berlin Wall's rise and fall (and inhabited by a man who informed on his neighbors); then it falls into disrepair. And then the author arrives and fixes it up "until it shone like new...Once again the house by the lake was happy." An appended author's note very helpfully fills in the blanks of the occasionally vague main text. We learn more about the real people who moved in and out of the dwelling (it is here that we learn Harding's family was Jewish; and more about that spying inhabitant), and find out that it now serves as a "center for education and reconciliation." Teckentrup's evocative textured and layered mixed-media illustrations beautifully reflect the bucolic setting in times of both familial repose and, chillingly, unthinkable evil.

Reviewer: Elissa Gershowitz | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2020