This month's book reviews

A young World War II Bomber pilot
is shot down over enemy territory

Henry Forrester was only nineteen years old, but as a lieutenant in the army air force, he was flying bombing missions into Nazi Germany. Henry was a farm boy, who had signed up in the military during his senior year in high school. It was still early in the war in Europe and the allied forces were desperately bombing munitions factories in Germany, trying to cripple Hitler's airplane production capacity. The B-24 bombers carried a crew of ten. Losses were high during the long missions over France and into Germany, because Nazi fighter planes were shooting down so many American and British bombers.

At that period of the war, the average pilot was able to successfully complete fifteen missions before being shot down. They had to complete twenty-five missions before they could be relieved. Henry, or Hank, as his buddies called him, was flying his fifteenth mission. It was a raid on a ball bearing factory deep inside Germany. The big bombers would be setting ducks for the German Luftwaffe.

After intense enemy attack, Hank's plane is severely damaged and all the crew members who are still alive are ordered to bail out. With his pilot severely wounded, Hank, as co-pilot, fights to keep the plane in the air until the rest of the crew clears the plane. Then, he helps his pilot jump out, and Hank just makes it out before the plane crashes.

Luckily, when Hank hit the ground, he landed in a snow bank that helped cushion the impact. Still, he had sprained or broken his ankle. He didn't know whether he had landed in France or in Germany. He knew a little French from his high school language classes, but he spoke no German at all. Finally, when he ran into an elderly man, he found out that he was in Alsace, a French province that Germany had invaded numerous times. The man, who had been a school teacher, spoke English very well. Since he hated the Germans, he helped Hank get some medical care for his bad ankle. This began Hank's long and adventurous attempt to contact French resistance fighters and, hopefully, escape to England.

For any young reader interested in details of flying planes over Europe and what happened to pilots who had to parachute into German occupied lands during The Second World War, "Under a War-torn Sky" is a suspense-filled and informative read.

 

A city boy spends a summer with unusual relatives
out in the boondocks

The boy telling this story is only eleven years old. His parents are heavy drinkers, so he is used to being sent away to relatives for periods of time. This time, it was to the Larsons, distant relatives that he had seen only once when he was seven. They lived on an isolated farm about forty miles from the town he lived in. He was shocked that it took so long to get to the farm. There were four Larsons - Knute, his second uncle, Clair, his second aunt by marriage, Glennis, a fourteen year old female second cousin, and Harris, also a second cousin, who was nine. The farm house had no electricity. There were only coal oil lamps.

He found he was to share a room with Harris. Walls and ceilings were bare wood, with the nails showing. The bed he was to sleep in had a mattress filled with corn shucks. It was Harris' job to help his cousin adjust to life on the farm. Harris was barefoot and wearing bib overalls that were too big for him. Although he was only nine, Harris liked to swear a lot, even though he was swatted on the head by Clair or Glennis if they heard him use a swear word. The boys had to get to breakfast early or Louie, the toothless hired hand, would wolf down all the pancakes and syrup, leaving none for the boys. Things didn't look good to the city boy.

Harris is one of those kids that is rude and crude and always inventing new ways to get into trouble. He certainly isn't above taking advantage of his city boy cousin at every opportunity. Early on, Harris tries to trick his city boy cousin into doing all the chores. Gradually, though, the two boys start to like each other and become close friends. Still, Harris gets them into one trouble after another. Probably the most dangerous stunt is putting a gasoline motor off an old washing machine onto a bicycle. What the boys hadn't counted on was that, once the bike started, there had to be some way to slow it down and stop. Even playing cowboys and Indians got them into trouble when they started shooting at the pigs.

The city boy (maybe author Gary Paulson?) goes from being worried about simply surviving in the country to being really sad when he has to return home to the city at the end of the summer.

 

Twelve year old runaway orphan girl finally
finds a home with an unusual artist

Hollis Woods is a twelve-year-old. She's been in and out of foster homes for as long as she can remember. Her way of coping with any problem is to run away. Of course, she is always tracked down and sent to another foster home. She had even run away from the Regan's, a family that, after having her for one summer, had wanted to adopt her as one of their own children. She liked the family and wanted to be part of it, and she wasn't really sure why she had run away. It was just part of her pattern.

The social worker, once Hollis had been found again, took her to another home for temporary foster care. The elderly woman there was named Josie. She clearly had been beautiful when younger, and Hollis liked her right away. Josie was affectionate and talked to Hollis like she was a real person and not just another foster kid. Jose seemed a little weird in her behavior, but Hollis didn't mind. Hollis loved to draw, and Josie was an artist, so the two got along very well. Hollis drew lots of picture, but, surprisingly, the pictures were all based on her experiences with the Regan's.

After a short time in her new foster home, Hollis began to realize that Josie was starting fairly rapidly to lose her memory. If the social worker found out, Hollis knew she would be taken away to another placement. She tried to help disguise Josie's strange behavior when inspection visits were made, but it became increasing difficult to do. Finally, Hollis decided she would have to run away again. But this time, she would take Josie with her!

Since Hollis was too young to drive, Josie would have to drive the car when they ran away together. The trip could be dangerous. Hollis knew of a good place where they could hide out at least for the winter. The Regan's had a summer place that the two could hide out in at least until warm weather came. They would have to figure out something else after that. Josie thought it was all a great adventure.

How does it all end? Does Hollis ever find a home and family? What happens to the lovable Josie? Who is the mysterious stranger who seems to be spying on them? You need to read "Pictures of Hollis Woods" by Patricia Reilly Giff to find out.