Genevieve's War

Reviewed by: Melissa Madigan - Merrill Memorial Library, Yarmouth, Southern Maine Library District

Review Date: November 6, 2017

Review

Thirteen year old Genevieve was always told to "do the right thing" - "think of others" well the one time she does just that it's really the wrong time to do that! It's 1939 and she is in Alscae, France where she and her brother Albert spent the summer with their grandmother (whom they do not like). It is time for them to go home to America just as WWII is about to break out. But neither actually returns to the US as planned. Genevieve stays because she feels bad for her elderly grandmother and worries about how she will manage the farm on her own. So out of a sense of duty and (doing the right thing) Genevieve makes her way back to the farm house. Albert as it turns out didn't leave either, he stayed to help the resistance smuggle people (Jews) out of France to keep then safe from the Germans. This is a wonderfully told story of WWII and life in a small town in France. Even the most reluctant of readers will devour this book!

Overall Book Score: very good