A ten-year-old girl growing up during World War II learns the painful lesson that doing what's right is not always easy. Includes a reader's guide.

Reviews

Gr 5-8‘Despite a lack of focus in plot and theme, this novel succeeds in providing a detailed picture of the World War II homefront in New Jersey in 1943. Ten-year-old Kay is an appealing heroine caught in an unloving home situation. Her stepmother, "Amazing Grace," exercises incredible abilities in the humiliation and cruelty departments, and her best friend is taken over by the golden girls at school when her brother dies in combat. The war is very distant and it hardly seems a crime when father won't let the older sisters buy bonds. Far worse is that he makes them quit school to work, and takes their pay checks and demands control of their lives in ways that girls of the `90s will find hard to accept. When Kay's grandfather, a German immigrant, is arrested and only Kay knows the identity of the traitor, personal bravery in support of the country becomes real. The death of her stepmother's baby that arrives prematurely and Kay's feeling of responsibility seem extraordinarily melodramatic, and are undercut by the sacrifice of her only doll for scrap rubber. It's the little details of rationing, the radio soap operas, and the ever-desirable "Mary Janes" instead of Buster Brown oxfords that make this story work.‘Carol A. Edwards, Minneapolis Public Library

Rinaldi (The Fifth of March; A Break with Charity) takes a break from early American historical fiction to explore the period of her own childhood, WWII. Expertly evoking the patriotic fervor on the home front as it permeates everything from scrap drives to popular songs, the author introduces 10-year-old Kay Hennings, the narrator, as preoccupied with justice and fighting the good fight as any of her radio heroines. Kay's family is steeped in misery of fairy-tale proportions: her stepmother takes almost sadistic pleasure in depriving Kay and her four older siblings of every semblance of comfort, and her miserly father shows more concern for his coffers than for his children. What would be melodrama in lesser hands generates tension here‘how will Kay bear it, much less "keep smiling through"? Rinaldi rewards Kay with an adventure worthy of her favorite radio show, then submits her to a test of honor and loyalty. Kay passes‘and learns the awful, adult lesson that "you can do the right thing and sometimes it all goes bad for you anyway." Kay's vulnerability spills across the entire novel, bathing it in poignancy and enveloping the reader in its old-fashioned, bittersweet truths. Ages 8-12. (May)

"Rinaldi creates . . . [a] vivid picture of the period she saw as a child."--"Booklist" (starred review)