Rodman, Mary Ann. 2008. Jimmy's Stars.The two people Ellie McKelvey hated most were Adolf Hitler and Victoria Gandeck. Hitler lived in Germany, but Victoria was just across the alley. And right now, Ellie hated Victoria more.
Jimmy's Stars is the story of a family on the homefront in World War II. Ellie, our heroine, is a young girl, only eleven, when her brother Jimmy is sent to war. In one way, she's proud. His being at home won't give anyone in the neighborhood or at her school the ammunition to tease her and her family for being slackers, for being unpatriotic. But most of all, she's worried but doesn't quite want to admit it. (That is she's afraid to admit that Jimmy might die or get wounded.) She'd rather him be safe and here, than brave and over there. It doesn't help matters any that Aunt Toots, her least favorite relative, is moving into their house, moving into Jimmy's room, wearing Jimmy's clothes. War means change, and Ellie doesn't like it one little bit.
Ellie is forced by the war, by these changes both in and outside of her family, to grow up sooner than she'd like.
I've always liked (or almost always liked) fiction and nonfiction books about World War II. Especially about those on the homefront--any home front be it America, England, China, Korea, Germany, Poland, Russia, France, wherever. I like reading about how women and children were effected by war.
This one would fit in nicely with the others in the field. And it's one I'm happy to recommend.
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© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews
4 comments:
Great, concise summary, Becky! I wrote my review before I finished it, late last night, planning to discuss the devastation tomorrow. It's so ironic that a soldier in my parents' neighborhood was just lost in Afghanistan last Thursday. I wondered if the book might be hepful to the family because I believe there is a message of hope at the end. It also make me nostalgic for small town Amaerica such as I knew as a child. I'll be back tomorrow~
Great review, Becky! I really enjoyed this and am anxious to read other books by this author. Jimmy's Stars took me back to books that I recall reading while in Junior High, so that was a fun little extra.
Like you, I like to read anything about WWII. This was honestly my first foray into the American home front. Do you have any other recommendations similar to this one?
I've read several that I've enjoyed. But my mind is spacing out at the moment.
Don't Talk To Me About the War is another good 2008 one, but it doesn't focus on the war, it's on pre-war feelings.
On the Wings of Heroes by Richard Peck is great.
The Green Glass Sea by Ellen Klages
And I know I've read more. I can even remember some of the plot details, but titles and authors aren't coming to me...at the moment.
But I'll work on it.
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