BookPikks

A somewhat disappointing Civil War novel.  I kept waiting for the book to get going, but it kind of just poked along to the end.

  Captured by Indians from her Pennsylvania farm, Mary is separated from her family and eventually adopted by a Seneca tribe.  The only thing Mary has left from her family is her mother’s last words to her: “…make the best of things and be happy if you can…It don’t matter what happens, if you’re only strong and have great courage…”  Mary took these words to heart, and made a life for herself with her Seneca family.  Based on a true story, this is a wonderful book.

After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Sumiko and her family are forced to abandon their thriving flower business, and are sent to live in an internment camp on an Indian reservation in the Southwest.  In the dry desert sand, Sumiko feels lost.  It is only when she plants a garden and makes a friend that hope for the future grows again.

Milada lives in Lidice, Czechoslovokia in 1942. When the Nazis take her suddenly from her family, the only things that remain are her grandmother’s pin, and her grandmother’s final words to her: “Remember who you are, Milada. Remember where you are from. Always.”

Milada is sent to a “school” to be re-educated as a good German girl, and is then adopted to a German family. But Milada takes her grandmother’s words to heart, and doesn’t forget who she is, and where she came from. Excellent.

Based on her own experiences during WWII, Vos writes about hidden children both during and after the war.