From School Library Journal
Grade 5–9—It's 1941, there's a war on in England, and Gordon, 13, wishes he could fly Spitfires. His dad's an engineer at Beresford's factory—a "reserved occupation" that can't be called up. His brother, Raymond, had also worked there, but he's just quit and moved out. In short chapters of confiding first-person narrative, readers learn that life is made up of shelter drills, window blackouts, rations, bully taunts about shirkers, and air raids, blasts, and shrapnel wreaking constant havoc on the town. When Gordon discovers his brother's hidden revolver, Raymond says he's part of a secret army, and that Gordon can do his part by ferrying information for him in a model airplane. Careful readers know from italicized vignettes that, though Gordon unwittingly plays along, Raymond is really a dealer in black-market goods. When everything unravels, his transgressions are more gruesome than anyone could have predicted. Swindells paints the home front like a play, in page-turning but atmospheric scenes full of details of everyday life and secondary characters that rise, well-rounded, from spare, believable dialogue. U.S. readers who can stick with the U.K. slang will find a unique and rewarding treatment of the war's collateral damage on the British populace.—
Riva Pollard, Prospect Sierra Middle School, El Cerrito, CA Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
“The life of a secret agent is a lonely one. And if you think that’s got a romantic ring to it, try it.” Life in a small English town during World War II is anything but glamorous in this story told by Gordon, 13, who is recruited by his older brother, Raymond, to work in the underground movement for the government. At least that is who Raymond says they are working for. Far from the usual homefront, heroic drama of brave resistance against the evil enemy, Gordon’s story tells of boring schooldays. At least evacuation drills break up the routine, and when his family is bombed out of their house, he welcomes the change that comes when he moves in with Grandma and begins to bike to school. The narrative is written in 1940s British colloquial language, but even if readers do not get all the references to “chums,” “rotters,” and “blithering nincompoops,” WWII fans will enjoy the realistic daily detail, especially because the suspense builds to a shocking climax. Grades 6-9. --Hazel Rochman
