About the Author

Joan Hiatt Harlow is the author of several popular historical novels including Secret of the Night Ponies, Shadows on the Sea, Midnight Rider, Star in the Storm, Joshua's Song, Thunder from the Sea, and Breaker Boy. Ms. Harlow lives in Venice, Florida. For more information, visit her at JoanHiattHarlow.com.

Jim Madsen is the illustrator of numerous books for children. He is a graduate of Brigham Young University and lives with his wife and kids in Provo, Utah where he enjoys the outdoors, golf, and riding Harley Davidson motorcycles.

Reviews

"[The novel] moves along at an engaging pace, and the author weaves in snippets about World War II and details of teen life during the 1940s."-- "School Library Journal"

"An enjoyable slice-of-life with an overlay of mystery."-- "Publishers Weekly"

"Harlow does a good job of combining the war drama with family secrets and vicious prejudice among the local kids. In an afterword she talks about how much of the story of the submarine incursions is true, and readers will find the history as exciting as the fiction."-- "Booklist"

Browsers drawn to Harlow's (Joshua's Song) WWII home-front novel by the sleek picture of a submarine in crosshairs on the cover might be in for a slight disappointmentthe naval intrigue nestled into the plot doesn't fully emerge until close to the end. Jill Winter must spend the summer of '42 with her grandmother in small-town Maine; her father, a famous pop singer, is on tour, and her mother has taken a dangerous route to Newfoundland to care for her dying brother. Jill immediately makes two friendsWendy, who, as Jill later discovers, is considered a pariah by the community, and Quarry, a salt-of-the-earth country boy. Against the backdrop of Jill's fears about her parents' safety, smaller intrigues play out. What is the purpose of her grandmother's secret Saturday night meetings with a group of women, among them a German? Why is their strange neighbor breeding pigeons (he claims they're for food, but Jill thinks otherwise)? And why are the Crystals, a local girls' clique, so determined to blackball Wendy? Harlow does an excellent job of describing the hardships of war on those back home, when rationing and a heightened sense of caution transform buttering a roll or turning on a light into something significant. Although the dialogue can be wooden and the plotting eventually strains for effect, the novel offers an enjoyable slice-of-life with an overlay of mystery. Ages 8-12. (Sept.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

"[The novel] moves along at an engaging pace, and the author weaves in snippets about World War II and details of teen life during the 1940s."-- "School Library Journal"
"An enjoyable slice-of-life with an overlay of mystery."-- "Publishers Weekly"
"Harlow does a good job of combining the war drama with family secrets and vicious prejudice among the local kids. In an afterword she talks about how much of the story of the submarine incursions is true, and readers will find the history as exciting as the fiction."-- "Booklist"