The Lion's Run and Time for Courage

Pennypacker, Sara. The Lion's Run

February 3, 2026 by Balzer + Bray

ARC provided by the Publisher

Lucas lives in Lamorlaye, France in 1944. He is being raised at the local abbey, since his parents have died. There are other boys there, including Marcel and Claude, who bully him mercilessly and even drown a bag of kittens in front of him. After they leave, he rescues them, but one has died. He takes the rest out to a barn in the woods, where he find Alice and her horse, Bia. Alice's father is a British trainer who is trying to work with the Nazis for his own safety, but since horses are being conscripted for the military, she hides Bia. She is not happy to see Lucas and tells him not to come back, but he says he needs to find the kittens mother and will bring her back. Lucas works for the Lamars and delivers groceries. One of the places he delivers groceries is to a maternity hospital run by Mme. Garnier. She is kind to Lucas and allows him to do odd jobs for money. When Alice tells Lucas that the facility is a Lebensborn hospital where the Nazis put young women who are pregnant by Nazi soldiers, he is appalled. The girls are treated well, but forced to give up their babies, who are then adopted by German couples. After talking to one resident, Claire, he knows this is true. Claire claims that she will be able to find her son, Felix, after the war is over, but that seems unlikely. Lucas ends up running notes between members of the resistance, like Father Gustave at the abbey and Mme. Garnier. Mme. Garnier lost her husband and son to the war, and tells Lucas she would like to adopt him, but the war makes things difficult. Soon, Lucas is drawn into Alice's plan to get Bia out of the country by faking documents and saying she is another horse. Bia and the groom will travel to Spain, and then to Kentucky, where Alice has contacted a horse breeder who will care for Bia. When the Nazis arrive earlier than planned to take the babies away, Lucas makes a rash decision to steal Felix, sending him on a perilous journey with Bia. Will they both be able to leave France?
Strengths: There are so many facets to World War II that it is not a surprise that I learned something new with this book. I had a vague idea of the German eugenics program, but didn't know that they had hospitals for young women who were having babies with German soliders. Alice's predicament reminded me of Kerr's The Winter Horses or Hopkinson's They Saved the Stallions, and will appeal to readers who like horse stories. Lucas was a great character with a lot of resilience despite his self doubt. Alice was at turns imperious and empathetic, and I loved that she saved the day even though she didn't really want to. Mme. Garnier was also a heart warming character, and there are indications that maybe she and Lucas would reconnect after the war. This is probably my favorite of Pennypacker's titles.
Weaknesses: A warning for sensitive readers: This starts with the drowning death of a kitten, and the mother cat's body is later found. Combined with the depictions of war and the discussion about why the girls are at the Lebensborn hospital, this might be best suited to middle school readers.
What I really think: This is a good choice for readers who were interested in Marsha Skrypuch or Carol Matas' World War II titles. While I liked the Jon Klassen cover, it does look a bit like it might be connected to this author's Pax, but it is not. 

Currie, Rob. Time for Courage (Hunger Winter #2)
January 6, 2026 by Tyndale Kids
E ARC provided by Netgalley

In this sequel to Hunger Winter, we rejoin the Ingelse family as they settle in to life at a farmhouse outside of Utrecht, Netherlands so that the father can continue to work with the Resistance. Els has finally allowed Dirk to join the efforts as well, and the book starts with a daring heist of food coupons for the orphans in the care of their Aunt Cora, as well as a harrowing chase scene. Dirk still doesn't always make good choices but is slowly starting to fully grasp the extent of how careful he must be after a Finnish girl, Enny, pulls him away from an elderly woman at a train station who is asking him for personal information. Dirk's six year old sister, Anna, is constantly asking for a younger brother (even though the mother has died), so when Dirk is unable to take three year old Isaac to his foster family, she is thrilled that he will be living with them. The Nazis soon attack the farmhouse, and Isaac's safety is in jeopardy. The father is on the run, as are the children. Will the Ingelse family be able to survive the war?

This was an excellent sequel, and I'll definitely purchase it for my fans of World War II, but it was a tense read filled with constant danger. There were some more lighthearted moments, such as when the group releases a bunch of cats in the train station to throw the Nazi dogs off the scent so that food parcels could be retrieved for delivery, but even that was a very serious and dangerous situation. The father's refrain that he won't tell his children what was happening "Not until after the war" was heartbreaking.

My main take away from this book was that the world should have learned valuable lessons from World War II, and yet many did not, and the world has once again plunged into endless cycles of conflict that are killing and displacing so many people. It's good to see the indomitable spirit of the Dutch, but given the current global climate, this just made me sad.