I reviewed the other book in this "series" of historical fiction heroines, Genevieve's War, by Patricia Reilly Giff, in my posting Historical Fiction for Veteran's Day.
This is a story told in verse, and it goes remarkably quickly.
It's the harrowing tale of Anna, who almost loses her family farm in the Irish Land War. When she breaks the landlord's window and is taken to jail, she escapes and runs with her baby sister, Nuala, to a senile Aunt, who weaves fine shawls for the English landlord to pay her rent and support the girls.
But when Anna goes to deliver her Aunt's latest creation at the manor, she's recognized and she has to flee again...but this time she's got nowhere else to go but home. What will she find?
It's a heart-breaking tale with a truly courageous heroine who does all she can for her family in the circumstances she's given.
We loved this WWII tale of the little-known Japanese invasion of a US Aleutian Island, more than a thousand miles off the coast of Alaska.
Izzy's mother is welcomed to the Island to study rare birds.
Matt's father drags the recalcitrant teen to the Island as a part of his secretive, US government job.
Izzy trips over Matt on the boatride over, and they instantly don't like each other.
Then, the war comes too close and the Japanese invade the island, rounding up all the adults and loading them onto a boat. Only Izzy and Matt manage to evade capture and remain behind. They help each other and a stray dog survive, until the bombs start raining down and finally they're rescued by US forces.
This was a riveting tale, and it features a scruffy dog, too, so it's sure to pull on your heart-strings!
There's a note at the back how only half of the adults rounded up survived being detained by the Japanese, and even after the war was over, they were never allowed to return to their homes.
