Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    When We Were Young & Brave: A Novel
    When We Were Young & Brave: A Novel
    When We Were Young & Brave: A Novel
    Audiobook11 hours

    When We Were Young & Brave: A Novel

    Written by Hazel Gaynor

    Narrated by Rosie Jones and Imogen Church

    4.5/5

    ()

    Switch to ebook

    About this audiobook

    ""Gaynor's story of courage and strength will make you believe in the heroic spirit in each of us."" —Lisa Wingate, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Before We Were Yours

    The New York Times bestselling author of The Girl Who Came Home sets her unforgettable new novel in China during WWII, inspired by true events surrounding the Japanese Army’s internment of teachers and children from a British-run missionary school.

    Their motto was to be prepared, but nothing could prepare them for war.

    China, December 1941. Having left an unhappy life in England for a teaching post at a missionary school in northern China, Elspeth Kent is now anxious to return home to help the war effort. But as she prepares to leave China, a terrible twist of fate determines a different path for Elspeth, and those in her charge.

    Ten-year-old Nancy Plummer has always felt safe at Chefoo School, protected by her British status. But when Japan declares war on Britain and America, Japanese forces take control of the school and the security and comforts Nancy and her friends are used to are replaced by privation, uncertainty and fear. Now the enemy, and separated from their parents, the children look to their teachers – to Miss Kent and her new Girl Guide patrol especially – to provide a sense of unity and safety.

    Faced with the relentless challenges of oppression, the school community must rely on their courage, faith and friendships as they pray for liberation – but worse is to come when they are sent to a distant internment camp where even greater uncertainty and danger await . . .

    Inspired by true events, When We Were Young and Brave is an unforgettable novel about impossible choices and unimaginable hardship, and the life-changing bonds formed between a young girl and her teacher in a remote corner of a terrible war.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateOct 6, 2020
    ISBN9780063036062
    Author

    Hazel Gaynor

    Hazel Gaynor is an award-winning New York Times and USA Today bestselling author known for her deeply moving historical novels which explore the defining events of the 20th century. A recipient of the 2015 RNA Historical Novel of the Year award, her work has since been shortlisted for multiple awards in the UK and Ireland. Her latest novel, The Last Lifeboat, was a Times of London historical novel of the month, shortlisted for the 2023 Irish Book Awards and recipient of the 2024 Audie Award for Best Fiction Narrator. Hazel’s work has been translated into twenty languages and is published in twenty-seven territories to date. She lives in Ireland with her family.

    More audiobooks from Hazel Gaynor

    Related to When We Were Young & Brave

    Related audiobooks

    World War II Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Women Of Bletchley Part I: The Bombe Operator

      Jan 24, 2019

      Although it was shrouded in secrecy for decades, the codebreaking work of Bletchley Park is now recognised as an extraordinary wartime achievement. Prodigiously talented cryptanalysts devised various methods to decipher Axis communications. This prod

      11 min read

    • Article

      The Boy Who Drew Auschwitz

      Jan 27, 2021

      The Boy Who Drew Auschwitz
      4 min read

    • Article

      Life In Wartime: Women Dominate A Quartet Of World War II Novels

      Aug 25, 2021

      The 4 best recent novels set during World War II show the ingenuity of women who put everything on the line to defeat the Nazis.

      4 min read

    • Article

      Best-sellers

      Feb 25, 2018

      Rankings for hard-cover books sold in Southern California, as reported by selected book stores: ___ Fiction 1."The Great Alone," by Kristin Hannah (St. Martin's: $28.99) A family discovers it is in peril after the father, a returning Vietnam War POW,

      1 min read

    • Article

      How Postcards From My Mother Helped Me Survive Childhood

      Mar 3, 2017

      For years, my mother wrote to me every day. I’d been sent away to boarding school and for the first weeks was forbidden to call home­. I was eleven. This was just before mobile phones came beeping and clicking into the lives of everyday people. I di

      4 min read

    • Article

      What’s In A Name?

      Dec 22, 2021

      What’s In A Name?
      9 min read

    • Article

      This Back Is a Familiar Back

      May 1, 2023

      This Back Is a Familiar Back
      8 min read

    • Article

      A Southern Christmas

      Nov 1, 2023

      A Southern Christmas
      7 min read

    • Article

      The Last Friend on Earth

      May 4, 2023

      It was as if Doreen Saunders had been waiting for me, passing the time until my arrival. She might as well have been sitting in a rocking chair, knitting needles clicking, jam tarts cooling on the side, the door wide open, waiting for the next visito

      6 min read

    • Article

      The Inherited Imagination

      Aug 18, 2020

      The Inherited Imagination
      9 min read

    • Article

      My Best Friend

      Oct 1, 2020

      My Best Friend
      6 min read

    • Article

      Cherished Volumes

      Jan 21, 2020

      The oar dipped methodically into the wateras my dad guided our canoe across the shimmering lake. Sunshine warmed my bare shoulders, and I listened in rapt attention while my mom read from the volume in her hands: “The birches in the hollow turned as

      4 min read

    • Article

      The Joys Of Reading With A Second Grader

      Nov 18, 2019

      My daughter would need a chair to reach them, and I could see it was this fact—not my endorsement of Lucy Maud Montgomery’s classics—that sold her on them. The post The Joys of Reading with a Second Grader appeared first on The Millions.

      6 min read

    • Article

      Mother Tongue

      Feb 24, 2021

      Mother Tongue
      12 min read

    • Article

      Ashleigh Bryant Phillips

      Jun 10, 2020

      Ashleigh Bryant Phillips
      6 min read

    • Article

      Little House

      Jun 5, 2023

      On Monday nights our mother made popcorn and served it to us in mugs with milk poured over. My younger sister and I carried our mugs into the family room and ate the popcorn with spoons, like cereal. We were five and seven. Until we were allowed to s

      21 min read

    • Article

      Lockdown Stories

      Nov 13, 2020

      Lockdown Stories
      6 min read

    • Article

      Lucky Were the Bodies

      May 3, 2022

      Lucky Were the Bodies
      8 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for When We Were Young & Brave

    4.5/5

    182 ratings28 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      Such an amazing book! I went out and bought a copy for my shelf!
    • 3/5
      When We Were Young & Brave is a WW2 historical fiction not in Europe, finally! There aren't many WW2 historical fiction books out there that are set in China. Elspeth Kent is a teacher at the missionary school where 10 year old Nancy Plummer is a boarder. When the teachers and students are sent to a distant Interment camp, unimaginable hardship and choices lie ahead for them. I appreciate the author writing something new and different. However, I did find the story very depressing and lacking in prose. What the author did do a good job on was keeping you gripped to the storyline despite the sometimes juvenile writing style .
    • 5/5
      Remarkable storyline that keep me engaged while listening to the audiobook.
    • 5/5
      This is a great history of World War II that I never heard of, of China,OfJapan and the concentration camps and the children. Very well done
    • 3/5
      It was long but good. Not amazing, but good. 3⭐️
    • 5/5
      Masterfully written…it should be required reading for junior high students. The youth of today would benefit from the fortitude and bravery portrayed on the pages of thus book.
    • 4/5
      Definitely a good book. Slow in some parts. Great ww2 story.
    • 4/5
      I won When We Were Young and Brave from Library Thing's Early Reviewer program back in June 2020, but never received a copy from the publisher (William Morrow). It still appeared on my Not Reviewed list (I've been an Early Reviewer since November 2007), so I checked my libraries and borrowed and read the e-book this month.This historical fiction novel is based on the real-life World War II events at the Chefoo School, a Protestant boarding school for children of foreign missionaries, diplomats, and businessmen in China. Most were British, but some were American or other nationalities. The day after the Pearl Harbor attack, Japanese soldiers start to take over the school. Eventually the students and staff are moved to a local internment site, and then a camp much further away, where they stayed until liberated just after the war's end.The story is alternately told by two main fictional characters: Elspeth Kent, one of the teachers, who originally came to the school to get away from her British home and memories of a lost love there; and Nancy Plummer, one of the students, who is the daughter of two missionaries and is ten when the story starts.I particularly enjoyed the incorporation of the Girl Guides (the British version of the Girl Scouts) into the novel. Elspeth and fellow teacher Minnie Butterworth are the leaders of a group of Guides that includes Nancy and her friends and female classmates. The continuance of their Guide activities throughout their ordeal gives them all strength. That, and the setting in China, made this a refreshing, non-typical World War II story.
    • 5/5
      When We Were Young And Brave is a fictional account of real life events surrounding the Chefoo School in China during the Japanese occupation in WWII. The Japanese took control of the British-run missionary school in December of 1941. At first the school continued, albeit with a number of restrictions and privations. But soon the Japanese moved the teachers and students from one place to another until they were in an internment camp. The bravery, resiliency, and dogged will to survive beautifully unfolds under the masterful hand of Hazel Gaynor. I have read a few of Gaynor’s novels, but in my opinion this one surpasses them all. The rich historical detail brought this reader into a place and time I knew little about. The story is told through two points of view, Elspeth, a teacher with the school, and Nancy a young student. Their voices told the story with depth and meaning. There are hard things in this book — the cruelty of the Japanese guards, the horrible treatment of the Chinese population, the near starvation conditions, and extreme hygienic neglect — but there are moments of hope and perseverance. A sunflower growing in an unlikely spot, the Girl Guides program the young girls clung to, the many kindnesses between prisoners — all brought a sense that life would some day return to normal. I admit to Googling to find out what was fact and fiction and found that Gaynor presented an accurate and moving look into the historical events. This book will stay with me a long time. I just wish I had read it with a book club — it certainly demands discussion. A general market offering, When We Were Young And Brave is a clean read, but as I said, with some very realistic depictions of what really went on in the camps. I rate it a very highly recommended read! Specific to the audiobook: the two narrators were excellent! I found they brought an authenticity to the two characters.Very Highly Recommended.Audience: Adults.(I purchased the audiobook from Audible. All opinions expressed are mine alone.)
    • 5/5
      Wonderfully descriptive even with Gaynor admitting to using her imagination instead of completely factual material in places, of course. It was wonderful to have an evolution over time of what became of some of the main characters in the story. Truly frighteningly horrible circumstances---what good does war do for anyone?
    • 5/5
      Truly an amazing story. Of all the WWII novels I have read, this is the first one that has taken place in mainland China. I had never really thought about that part of the world war. Hazel Gaynor has outdone herself throughout the pages of this story. You cannot help but become involved in the lives of the captives and their desperate circumstances. I know there are so many stories from this era all over the world. I am ever so glad that she has made the effort to educate us about this corner of the world where so much was going on. Hazel Gaynor's prose wrapped you up in the love, grief, friendships, and kindness amid pain and suffering. I highly recommend it!
    • 3/5
      I was drawn to Hazel Gaynor’s When We Were Young & Brave because of the novel’s focus on a facet of World War II I’ve read so little about: what happened to the expatriate school children who were suddenly trapped in countries like China after Japan declared war against the US and Britain. Gaynor’s novel explores what happens to the mostly British students at the China Inland Mission School after that school for the children of missionaries and diplomats falls under the control of China’s Japanese invaders. Gaynor begins with a 1975 prologue written by Nancy, a forty-something-year-old woman who is looking back on her experiences as a ten-year-old student in the Chefoo School more than thirty years earlier. The rest of the story is told in alternating flashback chapters written from the points of view of Nancy, the child, and Elspeth, one of the school’s young teachers. “…our war wasn’t one of battles and bombs. Ours was a war of everyday struggles; of hope versus despair, of courage against fear, strength over frailty. For all the time we spent under the control of the Japanese regime, without any certainty of when — if — it would end, not one of us could be sure which side would win. So we simply went on, rising and falling with each sunrise and sunset; forever lost, until we were found.” (page 242)The story begins in December 1941 when Nancy is only ten years old. She and her best friends, Sprout and Mouse, by this time have already been separated from their parents (missionaries working hundreds of miles away in inland China) for the better part of a year. All told, 124 children have remained at school for the Christmas holidays, along with a handful of teachers and missionaries, because the Sino-Japanese war has made it so dangerous to travel across the country to their parents. According to the headmaster, the boys and girls are composed of “ninety British, three Canadians, five Australians, two South Africans, eighteen Americans, three Norwegians, and three Dutch.” Most of the students began their internment as children; by the time they are rescued in August, 1945, they would be young adults.Over the four years of their confinement by the Japanese army, the children and their teachers experience a steady decline in housing conditions, medical treatment, and food quantity and quality. No matter how bad things get, however, the dedicated teachers and staff, who continue to school them on a daily basis, manage to shelter the children from truly understanding the fragility of their existence. For almost five years, the courageous teachers substitute for the parents that are missing in the lives of these children who, by the end of 1945, can barely even remember life at home with their families. Bottom Line: When We Were Young & Brave is a touching and inspirational story about a small group of students and teachers suddenly placed into a life-or-death situation for which they are totally unprepared. Their reality changes from one day to the next, but they find a way to cope with whatever is thrust upon them. However, despite the atrocities they suffer over the years, Gaynor tells their story in a way that seldom leaves the reader with a real sense of the terror and brutality of life in a Japanese prisoner of war camp. When We Were Young & Brave has more the feel of a good YA novel than one written for adults looking for an understanding of what the experience was really like for those who experienced it.
    • 5/5
      There are a lot of WWII novels, but Hazel Gaynor’s When We Were Young & Brave tackles a different aspect. Her story is set in a Japanese Army internment camp in China, where a British school’s students and teachers are being held. The bravery of the teachers protecting the children is the best of humanity. Fans of Kristin Hannah’s The Nightingale should pick this one up.
    • 3/5
      Story bounces back and forth between Elspeth and Nancy. I'd have to say I prefer Elspeth's point of view because she had tried so hard to put on a brave face for the girls and to maintain good morale and at least some semblance of normality in what would be an extremely difficult and horrible situation for children and adults alike. Nancy was quite mature for her age (understandable as she couldn't really act like a normal girl under these circumstances) and her storyline was alright but it was nice to see two different points of view showing two different aspects of strength. Storyline was alright but did seem to drag in some parts and writing style was a bit dry. It may appeal for historical fiction lovers out there. Those new to the genre, maybe not.Loved the historical notes about the Girl Guides at the end of the book. Very informative and helpful!
    • 5/5
      A powerful story of the human spirit and community bonds enabling people to survive. I
    • 4/5
      The Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in December of 1941. Almost immediately the net of captivity was dropped by them throughout Asia.Thousands upon thousands of men woman and children were incarcerated from that time until August of 1945 when the Japanese finally surrendered This is a novel based on real happenings to the mostly English children of missionaries and their teachers at a boarding school for them in Chefoo,China. We live this experience through 3 young girls,Plum,Mouse and Sprout nicknames they gave each other. It is also the story of their two incredible teachers,Elsbeth Kent and Minnie Butterworth. With bravery and determination they try everyday in three different prisoner situations to make the children's lives as normal as possible. Maintaining the strict rules of polite interaction and kindness toward one another. Also there was a heavy reliance on their troop of Girl Guides membership(Like Girl Scouts)and its rules and structures. This gave the girls and their teachers a noble thing and purpose to strive for.Eric Liddell a true historical character who won an Olympic medal for running(Chariots of Fire) is briefly a prisoner there and is a marvelous source of inspiration to all.I have had an interest in this part of World War two history since the 1980's when on the old A&E network for a year I faithfully watched the series,TENKO about many woman of multiple nationalities in a prisoner of war camp near Singapore.In the afterward the author mentions watching this series as a girl with her mum in England!I truly loved this book of hardship,friendship and love under awful circumstances..
    • 4/5
      This was an interesting book with likeable characters. I enjoyed the dynamic between the teachers and the students: the way the teachers cared for and looked after the students while the students gave purpose and hope to the teachers. I also found the end very moving.I wish there had been an author's note at the end as I find them to be a nice complement to historical fiction novels.I would have liked the storyline about Meihua to have been developed a bit more. It provided some moments of danger, but it didn't provide the level of character growth I expected.Though the story indicates that the first sunflower seed sprouted and grew, I wonder why no mention was made as to whether any of the other ones sprouted.Overall I enjoyed this novel and would recommend it to anyone who likes historical fiction.Thank you to NetGalley for the early read, since though I'd originally won this from LibraryThing Early Reviewers, I never received my copy.
    • 4/5
      This was an Early Reviewer Book which I very much enjoyed. Although it is yet another World War II book, it is set in China instead of Europe or Japan, and tells the story of missionary school children who are caught up in the turmoil and terror of war. I highly recommend it to readers who are looking for a different type of war story from the European spy thrillers that seem to be everywhere these days.
    • 5/5
      When a school in China for the children of missionairies and diplomats (mostly English, American, and Australian) is taken over by the invading Japanese early in World War II, hardship and deprivation are tempered by the courage and hope of the teachers and students. The focus is mainly on a group of Girl Guides at the school, and the Guide principles their leaders encourage them to live by. Throughout their occupation during the war, they grow from young girls to teenagers, dealing with the changes of puberty and the increasing cruelty of their captors. Throughout it all, they find beauty in nature and the kindness of other humans, including the Chinese and even one of the Japanese soldiers. This is a powerful story that will stay in your mind long after you close the book.
    • 5/5
      WHEN WE WERE YOUNG AND BRAVE – by Hazel GaynorBased on real people in real peril, this book follows Nancy, an eight-year-old student, and Elspeth Kent, a teacher at the Chefoo (China) School from 1939-1945. When the book begins, both Nancy and Elspeth are new arrivals at the school for children of missionaries and diplomats. The students are expected to study hard and make their way to colleges like Oxford and Harvard at the completion of their school years. When the Japanese occupy the school, life for both students and teachers abruptly changes. The book centers on how the teachers help the children cope with their very changed circumstances. Well researched and well written the story is compelling and full of incidents that portray life as “guests” of Imperial Japan from Temple Hill to Weihsein Internment Camp. Olympic medalist Eric Liddell was also interned atWeihsein and became one of the children’s teachers. The grit and perseverance of both and adults is starkly shown without excess reliance on graphic details. Book groups will find much to discuss. Older children and their parents in a combined book group would find this book absorbing and thought provoking.5 of 5 stars
    • 4/5
      This was an excellent book. I got this through the Early Reviewers program and was so excited because I enjoyed A Memory of Violets by Hazel Gaynor so I knew I already liked Hazel's writing style. I am a big fan of historical fiction set in the WW2 era but had never read or heard of anything like what is portrayed in this novel. I had no idea that there were POW camps in Japan that housed Allied civilians. The way Hazel wrote about the daily lives of these prisoners, in a raw and unfiltered way, made me appreciate how awful the conditions truly were. I was constantly cheering on Elspeth and Nancy and it was so gratifying at the end when they reunite and Elspeth admits that ultimately it was the children she had to look after that got her through those horrible times.Overall, this was a wonderful book and one that I will definitely be loaning out to my friends who are also WW2 historical fiction fans.
    • 4/5
      In "When We Were Young and Brave," Nancy is a Girl Guide, and her teacher/Guide leader/stand-in mother is Elspeth. They are in a Christian missionary school in China for American and British children (both girls and boys, being instructed separately), when World War II breaks out and they all become trapped under Japanese occupation.The novel mostly switches back and forth between the perspectives of Nancy and Elspeth. When the Japanese take over their beloved school, the teachers and students are first relocated to a very dilapidated set of abandoned buildings. Just when they have made life nearly bearable, they are forced to walk to an internment camp by Japanese soldiers, some of whom seem nice, considering they are imprisoning and starving hundreds of people. The officers in charge are evil, and one of them is stalking Elspeth..The novel, which covers the entire war, is also a bildungsroman taking Nancy from girlhood to adulthood. At times, the pat, Hail-Britannia stiff-upper lip theme became irritating. Mostly, however, I was absorbed in the story line, which is well plotted with only a few slow interludes. The determination of the women and girls to survive using nothing but determination, resourcefulness, and principle almost leaped off the page in some chapters. Gaynor's character development is fairly solid throughout, so if you are looking for engaging characters to accompany to fictional wartime hell and back, this book may be a good choice. Teachers who like historical fiction may like the depiction of education against almost impossible odds.A rebellious librarian character, Edwina Trevellyan, who is Scottish, was my favorite. Edwina provides a more worldly influence than the teachers as the schoolgirls become women and start asking "improper" questions. This pulls against the book's puritanical bent with the constant "A Guide always does this" and "A Guide never does that.". Some bad stuff is permitted to happen despite everyone's amazing British character and there are lasting scars. At least one of the students breaks bad and does what Guides Never Do in order to ensure her survival, which is another touch of realism that the novel badly needs in my opinion.Edwina demonstrates that sometimes it takes more than a stiff upper lip to survive, and by the time the camp was liberated in 1945, I was ready to give the book four stars. Unfortunately, Gaynor added several endings in an attempt to pull on my heartstrings. This tactic was so obvious that it nearly spoiled the book for me, but I identified very much, in different ways, with Elspeth and Edwina.
    • 3/5
      With thanks to LibraryThing for the chance to read and review When We Were Young and Brave. It is the story of a school in northern China for the children of diplomats and missionaries, whose lives change dramatically after Pearl Harbor when they became political prisoners of the Japanese. I never knew much about this aspect of World War II and was looking forward to this book. It was interesting but I didn’t especially care for it. I hate to complain but I would not recommend it to other readers.
    • 4/5
      *I received a copy of this book through LibraryThing Early Reviewers.*Plenty of WWII-era historical fiction centers around the war in Europe, but this novel focuses on the experiences of British and American schoolchildren in China. Told from the alternating perspectives of a young schoolgirl and one of her teachers, the book chronicles the deteriorating living conditions of the group as the Japanese army arrives at their school and they are forced to relocate to an internment camp. Watched and sometimes brutalized by their guards, the group manages to hold each other together as their situation worsens. I've read a few of this author's other novels and while I couldn't say this is my favorite of her works, I do think she manages to capture something close to the experience these people lived through. I would highly recommend this book to fans of historical fiction about WWII.
    • 4/5
      This was an early reviewer free book. Thank you.I really loved this book. It was extremely well written, though a bit slow, and just a sad, lovely story.For those who like historical fiction I highly recommend it.
    • 4/5
      Elspeth Kent, heartbroken over the death of her fiancé, takes a teaching job in China at a Christian mission school. Nancy Plummer, age 10, is enrolled in the school because of her parent’s missionary work. When war is declared against England and Japan, our narrators and 100 other children and faculty had to endure 4 years of internment camps. This story is based on actual events that happened. The hardships and horror these children had to endure was heartbreaking. The story was also inspiring in that the children adapted and survived. I loved this story about part of WWII I knew little about. Good book!
    • 5/5
      WHEN WE WERE YOUNG AND BRAVE is a most enjoyable read, and I did indeed enjoy the story, although probably not nearly as much as my wife, who confiscated it the day it arrived in the mail and read it very quickly over the next few days, exclaiming aloud to herself frequently and even weeping a few times. I mention this because I think I understand. Because Hazel Gaynor has written this book (as she apparently did her earlier books, which I have not read) for a female readership. Indeed, the two primary narrators here are a Woman and a girl. Elspeth Kent is a thirty-ish school teacher from Yorkshire whose fiance was killed in a mine. Heartbroken, she takes a job at a Christian mission school in China, where, along with the whole school, she is imprisoned by the Japanese army in the days following Pearl Harbor. During their four-year internment in two different camps, she forms special bonds, with a fellow teacher, and with three special girls. One of those girls is Nancy Plummer, who provides the second point-of-view, as we watch her mature from ten to fourteen under very severe and austere conditions. Taylor's story, much of it based on real events, characters and places (British Olympian, Eric Liddell plays an important role; and the Chefoo School was a very real place, as was the Weihsien prison camp), is an ambitious undertaking, marvelously realized. She has done her homework (read her Behind the Book endnotes) and created some strong, memorable characters, especially in Elspeth an Nancy. There are some shocking scenes of cruelty at the hands of their Japanese captors, but there is also kindness, bravery and incredible resilience on display, as Miss Kent leads her young charges into young womanhood, as teacher, confidante, and also as Girl Guide leader - because the Guide Handbook plays an impotent role throughout their years-long ordeal.While reading WHEN WE WERE YOUNG AND BRAVE, I was often reminded of J.G. Ballard 's EMPIRE OF THE SON, a novel (and also film) which I enjoyed immensely many years ago, so I was not surprised to find it in a list of books that Gaynor found important in her research of that place and time.My wife loved this book, so definitely five stars from her. I loved it too, but thought it slow and redundant in a few places, and wished it had been shortened and tightened up a bit. So, four and a half stars. But we both enjoyed the book enough that we may try another book or two from this talented, prolific author. Very highly recommended.Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER
    • 5/5
      When we read books about children in World War II, they often deal with the internment camps in the United States, sending children to the countryside in England, or evacuating Jewish children to other countries. Hazel Gaynor presented a fresh focus by concentrating on a group of children studying at a school sponsored by the China Inland Mission. Most children belonged to diplomats or missionaries--mostly British but some Americans and other nationalities. When Japan declared war on the United States, they were already occupying parts of China, and moved in quickly to take over the school, placing Japanese ownership signs on everything. The children were able to stay there for a short time, but were moved to another location in Chefoo. Eventually they were sent to an internment camp in Weihsien where they remained for the duration. The story is told through the eyes of one of the girls and one of the teachers. I loved this book and cried in several places. I received an advance reader's copy through LibraryThing Early Reviewers in exchange for an honest review.