Rating: 5 star rating
This book really got to me. It’s about two sisters, Dagmar and Heike, who are sent away from Germany in 1938 to keep them safe during the war. Their parents take them to the train station and put them on a Kindertransport-type evacuation, so it’s not like they’re being abandoned; they’re being sent away for their protection. This is still heartbreaking because they’re so young and confused.
They are taken to their new home placement, Goodfellow House, and are there for a while, trying to adjust and just survive day to day without their parents. Dagmar, being the older sister, basically takes it on herself to look after Heike all the time.
A fire breaks out in the Goodfellow House a couple of years later and damages it too much to live in. A fire inspector is brought in to inspect the fire and determine what was the cause of the fire. In the meantime, Dagmar starts worrying in her head that maybe Heike accidentally caused the fire. She never says it out loud, but you can feel how guilty and scared she is because she is worried and overthinking it. Eventually, they find out what really caused the fire, and it’s not what Dagmar feared at all.
There’s also this lost letter from their Aunt Miriam and Uncle Rafe, who moved to Argentina, that later shows up and helps explain more about what’s going on with their family. With the help of the family and friends of the second home placement, the Oxburrow home, they are able to discover what has happened to their family.
The story just feels very real and emotional. It’s more about fear, guilt, and trying to hold the family together when everything around them is falling apart. It’s not a big action war book; it’s more about what war does to kids and families in everyday life.
If you like WWII stories that are sad but are also about family and survival, this is a good one.
Thank you, NetGalley, Bookouture, and the author Marty Wingate for the book review consideration. All opinions are my own.
http://goodreads.com/patriciasreadingroom
http://www.patriciasreadingroom.blogspot.com
No comments:
Post a Comment