Customer Reviews

Keep Smiling Through

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This is a super super book. It is about a girl,Kay, whose mother has died and lives with her siblings, father and step mother, Amazing Grace, who is the "mean one" throughout this book. Kay, growing up in middle America, loves the radio and has heroes. The date was 1940. But when she found out an extreemly important secret that will help her country, she has to make a critical choice. Kay experiences many hardships throughout the chapters, but this book is a real page turner. It warms your heart to see how much poor little Kay wants and needs love and doesnt get much. It is one of my favorite books and I would DEFINETLY reccomend it to children from grades 5-7. I think girls would enjoy it more than boys, but maybe boys will like it too.

At ten, Kay is well versed in suffering and hardship. The youngest of five children - none of whom get along well with either their father or stepmother - Kay is used to trying to disappear within her grim home. It's not such a bad tactic at school, either, where Kay is a country girl among townies, and her one friend has begun ignoring her.

To make matters worse, the family's housekeeper Queenie has just left, and their stepmother - dubbed Amazing Grace by the children who both fear and dislike her - is expecting a baby. To help, Kay's grandparents have come to stay, further crowding the household.

One day, Kay's German grandfather is arrested. Only she knows the truth about what happened that day -- will she tell the truth and risk turning her family upside down?

Readers will appreciate the many details Rinaldi scatters throughout Kay's life - her longing for Mary Janes, popular 1940s radio programs and the various avenues of support for the war effort - which give a vivid taste of life in America during World War II.

This book clearly states what life was like during Worl War 2. The book makes you feel as though you were in it. The author describes each character with great detail and makes it seem as though you had known them all your life. Kay the main character in the book is faced with many hardships throughout the book. She experiences loss pain and embarresment caused by World War2.She hears her hereos on the radio and always wishes to be like them, One day she has a chance but will Kay be willing to help her country even if it means anger in her own family

with history thrown in. One of the better historical fictions about the home front that we have read. From beginning to end it is a page turner.

This is one of the best books you will ever read about World War Two. The story starts with a girl named Kay. She has many difficulties with her step-mother "Amazing Grace". Amazing Grace has to do with most of the plot

By and large, such a book probably could have been distributed in Nazi or Communist schools as well (Pavel Morozov is a good example, Hitlerjunge Quex another). Particularily insulting is that German Americans not in goose-step with FDR are portrayed as Nazi sympathizers. But, since nowadays the only ethnic group that can be safely slandered & stereotyped are people of German ancestry, I'm certain that shmonzes will sell well. Gott sei's geklagt!