Prisoner of War: A Novel of World War II

Spradlin, Michael P. Prisoner of War: A Novel of World War II
June 27th 2017 by Scholastic Press
E ARC from Edelweiss Above the Treeline

Henry has had a difficult life on the family farm in Minnesota. After the death of his mother, his father took up drinking and abusing him, so at the age of 15, he signs up for the Marines, with his grandfather vouching for his age. He survives basic training and is sent to the Philippines. Just as his commander is ready to send him home for being underage, the Japanese attack. Henry (nicknamed "Tree"),along with his friends and protectors, Gunny and Jamison, must try to stay alive during the bombings, and when the Japanese take them prisoners. Henry has some problems with anger management, and makes lots of bad choices, angering a guard he refers to as "Scarface" and getting beaten regularly. He does manage to save an Australian soldier, and the alliance with this group helps when Gunny is taken for "questioning". Japanese prison camps were brutal, and Tree ends up spending several years there. The prisoners show a lot of resourcefulness when it comes to outsmarting guards, obtaining medicine and food, and helping each other, but conditions are such that not everyone will survive.

There are a lot of World War II books, and yet I always need more for my readers who find it fascinating. A lot of books set during this time period take place in Europe, but there is a small number set in the Pacific theater. This is an excellent addition to books such as this author's Into the Killing Seas, Salisbury's The Hunt for the Bamboo Rat and Lynch's The Liberators, as well as excellent nonfiction titles like Farrell's Pure Grit, and Weintraub's No Better Friend. I've been reading  middle grade World War II fiction for twenty years, and those are the only Pacific theater titles I can muster, so there is a need to more!

Spradlin's book is especially effective because it takes into account what younger readers want, which is action, adventure, and violence, with what the adults handing them the books want, which is a certain depiction that war is not a great option. Henry's enlistment is done out of desperation over his situation at home, which was not unusual at the time. While the story doesn't glorify war, it does celebrate the men who banded together to help each other survive, and showed the triumph of human will under impossible circumstances. The other thing that young readers like is anyone undermining authority, and the prisoners certainly managed to get the better of their captors on many occasions. I imagine that Hogan's Heroes was wildly popular with 12 year old boys when it was on television, for just this reason.

The historical details are rich and interesting; it had never occurred to me that the guards at the prisons camp were the less successful soliders, but it makes sense. The heat and humidity of the jungle, the food rations or lack thereof, and the historical background are all effectively portrayed, and will hold up to the scrutiny of the most well informed war buff.

Books about war are not my favorite, and Tree certainly makes a lot of choices with which I wholeheartedly disagree, but Prisoner of War will get the most reluctant reader avidly turning the pages to see what fate holds for our underage protagonist.

Need more books for your tween war monger? Check out this World War II podcast.



Ure, James. W. Seized by the Sun: The Life and Disappearance of World War II Pilot Gertrude Tompkins
July 1st 2017 by Chicago Review Press
E ARC from Edelweiss Above the Treeline

While I am intrigued by this "Women of Action" series, this read more like a scholarly tome than a middle grade book. I'm glad to know about these, and will keep them in mind for my REALLY hard core war buffs, but will most likely not purchase and will rely on students getting this from the public library. If I had an unlimited budget, or if World War II was officially in our curriculum, I'd buy it.

From the Publisher
"Of the 38 Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs) confirmed or presumed dead in World War II, only one--Gertrude "Tommy" Tompkins--is still missing. On October 26, 1944, the 32-year-old fighter plane pilot lifted off from Mines Field in Los Angeles. She was never seen again.

Seized by the Sun is the story of a remarkable woman who overcame a troubled childhood and the societal constraints of her time to find her calling flying the fastest and most powerful airplane of World War II. It is also a compelling unsolved mystery.

Born in 1912 to a wealthy New Jersey family, Gertrude's childhood was marked by her mother's bouts with depression and her father's relentless search for a cure for the debilitating stutter that afflicted Gertrude throughout her life. Teased and struggling in school, young Gertrude retreated to a solitary existence. As a young woman she dabbled in raising goats and aimlessly crisscrossed the globe in an attempt to discover her purpose.

As war loomed in Europe, Gertrude met the love of her life, a Royal Air Force pilot who was killed flying over Holland. Telling her sister that she "couldn't stop crying, so she focused on learning to fly," Gertrude applied to join the newly formed Women's Air Force Service Pilots. She went on to become such a superior pilot that she was one of only 126 WASPs selected to fly fighter planes. After her first flight in the powerful P-51 Mustang, her stutter left her for good.

Gertrude's sudden disappearance remains a mystery to this day. Award-winning author Jim Ure leads readers through Gertrude's fascinating life; provides a detailed account of the WASPs' daily routines, training, and challenges; and describes the ongoing search for Gertrude's wreck and remains. The result of years of research and interviews with Gertrude's family, friends, and fellow WASPs, Seized by the Sun is an invaluable addition to any student's or history buff's bookshelf."