World War II Woman

Children’s Literature

Last week, while wandering around the juvenile book section of the library, a display book caught my eye. I was with my severn-year-old granddaughter and the book was My Secret War: The World War II Diary of Madeline Beck, by Mary Pope Osborne. I learned that it is part of the Scholastic series entitled Dear America.

As I thumbed through the book, I realized it had just about everything in it that was in my book, We Knew We Were at War: Women Remember World War II. This is not to suggest that you should buy the children’s book instead of mine, but I was so taken with the book that I checked it out.

Here in this book is a father in the Navy, a mother working in a defense factory, rationing, plane-spotting, children forming a club in school to collect books and aluminum, buying war stamps, volunteering to make first-aid kits for the Red Cross, and other such war-related activities. Aside from being educational, the book includes a romance and is a bit of a spy thriller. While patrolling the beach on Long Island, Madeline bumps into some Nazi saboteurs, which causes some tense and scary moments.

My Secret War is a good read for any age.

As my granddaughter checked an armful of books, I noticed she had another one in this series – something about Eleanor Roosevelt. She had already read My Secret War. 

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