cover image On the Home Front: Growing Up in Wartime England

On the Home Front: Growing Up in Wartime England

Ann Stalcup. Linnet Books, $19.5 (91pp) ISBN 978-0-208-02482-4

In her first book, Stalcup offers an adult perspective and anecdotal account of life in the rural town of Lydney, England, during WWII. Only four years old when England declared war on Germany in 1939, Stalcup cobbles together her own memories with those of neighbors and friends for this slow-moving and spotty chronicle of the war's military progress and its repercussions. The author recalls some interesting highlights--an irritable teacher and several evacuated children from suburban Birmingham and London take up temporary residence in her home, her mother sews thick black curtains for protection from potential nighttime air raids, German and Italian POWs arrive to work on local farms--but does not recount them with the target audience in mind. Young readers must wade through a great deal of personal, often superfluous detail here (e.g., ""English men were worried that with the Yanks now based in so many towns, the supply of beer would soon be gone!""), and in other instances must make sense of convoluted asides (e.g., ""Since Hitler's ideal Germans were fair-skinned and blond-haired, the Nazis were suspicious of anyone with dark hair or skin, often making the assumption that they were Jewish""). Without a narrative through-line to recommend it as recreational reading, and with uneven pacing that creates a challenge for researchers (the year 1942 is covered in two chapters, 1940 gets eight), it's hard to pinpoint a readership for this one. Ages 8-11. (May)