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Nancy Keane's | Booktalks -- Quick and Simple | |
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LaFleur,
Suzanne. |
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The
country of
Sofarende is
at war. The
army is
recruiting
children and
paying their
families for
their
services.
Mathilde and
Megs, both 12,
are best
friends.
Although they
are both old
enough to take
the army
aptitude test,
only Mathilde
passes. She
has to leave
behind Megs,
her parents,
and her two
little sisters
and live in a
remote mansion
where about 80
children are
housed with
soldiers and
other adults.
The children
there are
tracking the
progress of
the war,
monitoring
transmissions,
and producing
intelligence
used to stop
the progress
of the enemy.
Mathilde, on
the other
hand, is
assigned a
different
task. She is
sent to talk
to Rainer, a
prisoner of
war, with whom
she soon
develops a
close
relationship.
This book is
both moving
and
suspenseful.
It teaches us
that kindness
can be used as
a weapon, and
that children
have the power
to see what
adults cannot.
It ends on a
tense
cliff-hanger,
but don’t
worry, a
sequel is
planned. (Vermont
Dorothy
Canfield
Fisher Book
Award,
2018) |
| SUBJECTS: Best friends
-- Fiction. Survival -- Fiction. War -- Fiction. |
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