This is a lovely coming of age tale set at the beginning
of WW2 in Ontario.
When Charlotte Mary Twiss turned 12 in 1940, her sister,
Eleanor, gave her a diary and made her promise to use it to document the events
in what Eleanor avowed would be a significant year in her life. Eleanor even
promised her a treat if she could keep it up to the end of the year.
This book is Charlotte’s diary. In it she confides her hopes
and dream, joys and sorrows. At first she thinks she will have nothing of
significance to record, but with war in the background, it turns out she is
mistaken. Through Charlotte’s diary we
see that a war that seems very far away has repercussions on the home front in numerous ways.
When the family sponsors war guests,
Charlotte has to come to grips with no longer being the baby in the family and
learn to share her siblings and parents. She tries to understand her best friend,
Barbara, when she is filled with worry about her Jewish relatives in
Europe. Then Charlotte's brother joined the navy and after flurries of letter writing
back and forth, there were no missives from him.
Charlotte is a sensitive realistic character and over the
year we see her mature and become aware of others.
I love how Jean Little seamlessly integrates historical
events into the novel format through Charlotte’s eyes.
I truly enjoyed this book. In case you don't know, Jean Little can really write.
I know a few readers who are going to enjoy this one as much
as I did.
No comments:
Post a Comment