Spending the summer of 1939 working on her grandmother Meme’s farm in Alsace, France, thirteen-year-old Genevieve (Gen), an American, yearns to get back to her aunt’s house in New York. With rumors of the Germans invading Alsace and another world war starting she gets her chance to return. Yet when Gen notices her grandmother is injured, she makes a difficult (and dangerous) split second decision at the train station to “do the right thing” and stay and help her grandmother, even if she doesn't like her. Soon German soldiers are in Alsace, Jewish people are being deported, her grandmother’s animals and most of their food is taken by the Germans, and a German officer informs them that he's moving in. With her best friend in danger and many others in the Resistance needing to be hidden and helped, it’s hard to know what side people are on. This well-written tween historical novel about personal responsibility and the developing relationship between Gen, her grandmother, and the family she hardly knew before the war is a heartfelt, engrossing and rewarding read. I highly recommend it.

Sharyn H. / Marathon County Public Library
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Upper elementary/Middle School

Fourteen-year-old Genevieve and her older brother have been spending the summer or 1939 with her paternal grandmother in Alsace, France. Andre gets to leave early to go to college, but Genevieve is counting down the days until she can go back to New York. She doesn’t want to spend any time with this grandmother who seems to find fault with everything she does. We discover that Genevieve doesn’t really know either of her parents; both were killed in the train accident when she was a baby.
Finally, the day arrives when Genevieve can leave France. On the trip to the train station she notices that her grandmother has hurt herself and can barely walk. When the train pulls into the station, Genevieve doesn’t get on…her conscience will not allow her to leave her grandmother to work on her farm alone when she is obviously hurt…instead she walks back to her grandmother’s house. Her grandmother is NOT happy to see her back; she was supposed to be heading to safety rather than returning to, what will become, a German occupied war zone.
There is so much going on in this book…the German soldiers confiscating the families’ food and farm animals, burning of books not written in German, and a German officer decides to live in the house with Genevieve and her grandmother. This is a dangerous situation for the two as they have made the decision to hide one of Genevieve’s friends, a member of the French Resistance, in their attic. Genevieve has been admonished by her grandmother to tell no one about their hidden stash of food, a special painting that they hid from the German officer, and especially not the person in their attic. As Genevieve becomes closer to her grandmother, she also learns more about the father she never knew.
This book really brings home the fear that these people faced; not knowing whom to trust or what might happen to them. It was a quick read and the pace and plot just kept me turning the pages! There is plenty to interest both boys and girls and would make a good class read-aloud. ( )

Spending the summer on her prickly grandmother's farm in Alsace is not much of a vacation. Genevieve is practically counting the hours until she can return to New York City. But when her grandmother injures her ankle, Genevieve makes the impulsive decision to stay in Alsace and care for her grandmother, even though the specter of war looms large on the horizon. When Nazi soldiers occupy Alsace, Genevieve's courage and wit will be tested in ways she could never have imagined.

This was a quick and interesting read. It's clearly a juvenile book, because although there are some tense moments, the real horrors of World War II are always viewed at a slight remove. Giff's spare, telegraphic writing style works well with the subject matter, and Genevieve's character development is nuanced and believable. Recommended. ( )