I'm going to focus on newer children's books about WWI and WWII for this week's blog post.
This first book is set during WWI. It is based on a true story, of how Winnie the American black bear was orphaned, adopted by a Canadian Mountie veterinarian, shipped across the Atlantic and ended up in the London Zoo, where A.A. Milne (Winnie the Pooh author) met him as a child. There are dispatches (very brief) from the officer who raises and trains Winnie and finally entrusts him to the Zoo, when the fighting drags on for years.
This second book is set during WWII. It begins with an orphaned brother and sister who have been sent to their grandmother's farm in Alsace. When the war looms, the brother appears to leave on a steamship for home (America), but the girl stays. Her grandmother hurts her ankle on the girl's departure day, and although the woman has acted curmudgeonly toward her, the girl makes the fateful decision to stay and help her grandmother. She has absolutely no idea of the dangers she will face in the coming war.
Both stories, unlike most war stories, end exceptionally well, with most characters surviving. I won't spoil and tell who doesn't make it. :-(
