Code Name Kingfisher
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
“A stirring story that will give any reader a boost of bravery in the face of adversity.” —Booklist
A young girl learns of her grandmother and great-aunt’s involvement in the Dutch Resistance during World War II in this “intense story, gorgeously told” (School Library Journal, starred review) of family, history, resilience, and hope from acclaimed author Liz Kessler.
Thirteen-year-old Liv’s beloved ninety-two-year-old grandmother, Bubbe, is moving into a home where she can be cared for as her dementia worsens. As Liv helps her father empty Bubbe’s house, she finds an old chest which opens up a whole world that Liv never knew about: the hidden world of Bubbe’s childhood.
Through the letters and other mementos, Liv learns that her bubbe, given name Mila, had a sister, Hannie, that no one in Liv’s family ever knew about. In 1942, Mila and Hannie are sent away from their parents to a non-Jewish family so they will survive the war. Twelve-year-old Mila believes that they will soon be reunited with their parents and go back to their normal lives, but fourteen-year-old Hannie knows better, and soon gets involved in the Resistance. Hannie takes on more and more dangerous assignments until a betrayal forces her to decide between running away with her sister or fully committing to mission. Tragedy strikes, and Mila goes to England on her own to restart her life from scratch, vowing never to talk about her childhood again.
In the present day, Liv reads how Mila builds something new from the shattered pieces of her childhood while giving beloved Bubbe all the support she can. Both Liv and Mila grapple with loyalty, family, and love as they discover what it means to be brave and go above and beyond to offer someone else a life of dignity, happiness, and freedom.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Kessler (When the World Was Ours) intertwines two poignant stories via four alternating perspectives in this well-paced novel: one of Dutch Jewish sisters Mila, 12, and Hannie, 15, posing as Christians in WWII Amsterdam, the other of contemporary British 13-year-old Liv, who's navigating friendship troubles and her relationship with her cold, secretive grandmother. A school assignment to create a family tree stumps Liv, who knows nothing about her ancestry. But after her widowed paternal grandmother, Bubbe, moves to a care facility, Liv cleans out her attic and discovers a photograph dated 1942 that might provide clues to Bubbe's guarded nature—and help with Liv's assignment. Hannie's unsent letters to her mother are interspersed throughout Liv and Mila's dual POVs, and occasional later chapters are narrated by another Jewish child in Amsterdam. Narrative parallels between Liv's efforts in standing up to bullies and Hannie's work saving Jewish children with the Dutch Resistance feel some-what unevenly weighted, but skillfully structured suspense as well as Liv's persistence in learning—and helping complete—Bubbe's story makes for a rewarding read. A historical note concludes. Most characters present as white; many are Jewish. Ages 8–12.
