From Publishers Weekly
A sensibility more adult than childlike colors Cutler's episodic novel about an American girl growing up during WWII. Ellen, first met in the summer of 1942, when she is 11, has no way of grasping the meaning of war. When a German Jewish refugee family moves into her neighborhood, she is certain that they are spies, and she leaps out from behind a bush to tackle the young daughter, yelling, "Geronimo!" By the time the war ends, however, Ellen has greater understanding, having seen her soldier uncle shattered by his experiences fighting the Germans. Throughout, laconic wit replaces the ready humor of Cutler's (No Dogs Allowed) previous writing. The author's use of period details is so convincing that the book reads like autobiography, but the elliptical structure of her novel, which jumps from one summer to the next, undermines the mood-unlike Ellen, the reader is not sufficiently exposed to the historical climate to appreciate the incidents Cutler relates; rather than entering Ellen's world, the reader is left to hopscotch through it. Ages 10-up.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From School Library Journal
Grade 5-8-As World War II rages overseas, Ellen grows from a young girl who acts out imaginary war stories into a teenager just beginning to be aware of her femininity. She chronicles the events that fill the summers of 1942- 1945: getting to know a girl who is a Jewish refugee; tracking the progress of the Allies on a map with her friends; auditioning for a part on a radio program; accepting the truth of the "facts of life"; and, most of all, corresponding with her Uncle Bob, who went off to fight feeling cocksure and jovial but eventually returns withdrawn and depressed. Ellen is an interesting character who struggles with wanting to do tomboyish things, conflicting feelings about the excitement of the war, and the usual confusion about boys and friendships. Cutler successfully conveys the many emotions of her narrator and the other characters as well as the Midwestern homefront setting. However, some readers may not find Ellen's gradual maturation and the progress of the war sufficient plot lines to hold their interest.
Louise L. Sherman, Anna C. Scott School, Leonia, NJCopyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
