by Amy Hest
Just released: August 4, 2020
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Genre: Historical, WWII, Middle Grade
Hardback: 192
Rating: 4
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First sentence(s):
I'm the one who found her.
On the morning of the dedication of the new children's library in Belle Beach, Long Island, eleven-year-old Julie Sweet and her six-year-old sister, Martha, find a baby in a basket on the library steps. At the same time, twelve-year-old Bruno Ben-Eli is on his way to the train station to catch the 9:15 train into New York City. He is on an important errand for his brother, who is a soldier overseas in World War II. But when Bruno spies Julie, the same Julie who hasn't spoken to him for sixteen days, heading away from the library with a baby in her arms, he has to follow her. Holy everything, he thinks. Julie Sweet is a kidnapper.
Of course, the truth is much more complicated than the children know in this heartwarming and beautifully textured family story by award-winning author Amy Hest. Told in three distinct voices, each with a different take on events, the novel captures the moments and emotions of a life-changing summer -- a summer in which a baby gives a family hope and brings a community together.
My two-bits:
Captures a WWII experience in a summer snippet with children's perspective with love and loss presented in a gentle way.
* review copy courtesy of publisher
* part of Summertime time (schedule)
