I just finished up listening to the audio book The Children of Willesden Lane: A True Story of Hope and Survival During World War II (Young Readers Edition)
I’ll admit…I was first attracted to the book by the cover. First off the cover is red and second there was girl with a suitcase. (reminding me of Anne of Green Gables). I went on to notice that it was a WWII book that involved Kindertransports. That had me hooked.
So did I like the book?I did. The book was a little basic but that’s what I get when I read books designed for readers 3rd-7th grade. That’s okay. I typically like the books. The story is good and I was so happy to see a WWII book that involved hardships but not eternal suffering and deaths jumping out of the pages.
Here’s what Amazon had to say, “Fourteen-year-old Lisa Jura was a musical prodigy who hoped to become a concert pianist. But when Hitler’s armies advanced on pre-war Vienna, Lisa’s parents were forced to make a difficult decision. Able to secure passage for only one of their three daughters through the Kindertransport, they chose to send gifted Lisa to London for safety.
Jo, my husband and I saw this in musical form last year at a local theatre… and the pianist was the daughter of one of the characters. It was SO moving. Such a great story!
Like you, Jo, I really like stories and documentaries about World War II. I was a small girl when WWII started and through it all, being very curious all my life, I remember so much about it, the air mail letters from my Stepdad who was a Seabee, written on that ultra-thin paper (although we did not know the theater in which he was serving), the dark green shades we had on all the windows of the houses to be pulled at night so the lights of the small town we lived in, in the Pacific Northwest, could not be seen from the air in case of attack, the ration books so that even a pair of new shoes was a big event, the soldiers and sailors coming home on leave looking so jaunty in their uniforms, hearing Gabriel Heater on the news each evening through our radio; I can still remember his unique voice giving us updates on the latest news of the war. So many memories, ….and finally the day the war was over, my Mom saying to me that evening, “Let’s walk downtown and see all the neon lights!”, and how happy I was to see my Stepdad the day he returned home from the war.
WOW…how fun!