- Author: Leah Weiss
- Genre: Coming of Age, historical fiction
- Page number: 288
- Setting: Rural North Carolina, 1940’s
- Subject headings: teen-age girls, friendship, Prisoner of war camps in the United States, WWII Homefront, missing persons
Topics explored: bee keeping, losing a parent, abandonment, friendship, illness-flu, Prisoners of War, WWII, sexual assault, Gold Star family
Set in rural North Carolina with WWII as a backdrop, we meet Bert and Lucy as they become fast friends. Both girls are thirteen, share the same birthday month, are strong willed and both have wild imaginations. Lucy, a fan of anything Nancy Drew, entices Bert to help her solve the mystery of three missing men in their town. At the same time, WWII prisoners of war are being held outside of town and Lucy’s family needs help harvesting beeswax and the German POWs are sent to help.
There are many good qualities to this book. The characters’ love of reading, respect towards their elders, working toward a common goal and a shared fascination for the unexplained. I particularly enjoyed the relationship between the Brown family and Bert and how easily they took her in and made her part of their family. I loved that Bert had a box of treasures and she hung on to them to reassure her of her place and her history. This is similar to Little House on the Prairie or The Walton’s stories where goodness and kindness are forefront.
My thoughts are…this is a good book for a middle or high school student as the story contains nothing controversial or graphic- just homemade goodness. I can imagine students would want to research the history of German POWs being held in the US and how they were treated.
Side note: The German POWs helping on the family farm were from Mittenwald, a small town located in Germany. I have traveled there and you can read about it here!
This title is available in your public library!
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