Patricia Reilly Giff (1935–2021)

Giff’s 1997 Newbery Honor Book opens in June 1944 with ten-year-old Lily Mollahan and her grandmother packing for their annual summer stay at Rockaway Beach, a vast five-mile stretch on the Rockaway peninsula in the borough of Queens, New York. Lily’s father, “Poppy,” an engineer, is to join them for weekends. (Her mother died from a heart condition when Lily was an infant.)

Unfortunately, when Lily arrives in Rockaway she promptly learns that her longtime summer friend, Margaret show more Dillon, is moving away to Michigan, at least for the time being. Her dad has taken a job on a bomber-plane assembly line there. Before leaving, Margaret gives Lily, a budding writer, the key to the Dillon summer place, so she can escape her sometimes bossy grandmother and work on her stories in its wonderful attic room. A worse announcement comes soon after: Poppy is leaving for Europe, not as a soldier, but because his engineering skills are needed. He promises he will write to his daughter and somehow let her know where he is. Lily’s grief is intense, and she angrily refuses to see him off, an act that will haunt her through a very eventful summer.

Most of the action of the novel is concerned with Lily’s growing friendship with a war refugee from Budapest, the nephew of the Mollahan’s neighbours, Mr. and Mrs. Orban. Albert has been through a traumatic time. Two years earlier, his grandmother took charge of him and his little sister, Ruth, just before their parents were arrested for publishing a newspaper that was critical of Hitler, an act which cost them their lives. The children’s grandmother arranged to have them smuggled west across Europe to France and, hopefully, to America. Unfortunately, by the time the siblings reached France, Ruth was seriously ill with measles. She had to be left behind with an order of nuns. Now Albert is deeply distressed by the fact that he did not say goodbye to Ruth.He’s further tormented by the knowledge that he could have stayed in France with her. Instead, because he was so terrified of the Nazis, he'd chosen to leave for North America without her.

The climax of the novel hinges on a lie that Lily tells Albert, which makes him believe he might be able to get himself aboard a troopship to Europe so that he can find Ruth. All of this may sound a little heavy going for young readers, but Giff has a delicate touch; lighter incidents, including the discovery of a marmalade kitten, counterbalance the serious ones.

The many warm and emotionally satisfying moments in the novel also compensate for a few events that might raise the eyebrows of adult readers. Giff’s child characters have a remarkable amount of freedom compared to most of today's kids. When I consider my own and my friends’ childhood experiences, I marvel at, and am grateful for, the benign neglect of our parents, which gave us the freedom to roam. Giff’s main characters have freedom to roam and then some. They glide off in rowboats, sometimes in the middle of the night, and they go swimming in rough water without any adult supervision—things even the relaxed parents I knew would never have permitted, even though their kids were capable swimmers. Some of today’s helicopter parents might be alarmed by the ideas this novel might give to young readers!

These quibbles aside, Giff’s book is generally a rewarding piece of historical fiction about the power of friendship and family love. Recommended.

Rating: 3.5 rounded down show less

A free-verse novel about a young Irish girl living with her father and younger sister on a poor bit of land during the Irish Land Wars. This small girl with not even shoes on her feet learns to stand up to the English Lord demanding rent they can't pay, as she fights to save her family farm.
Simply and beautifully told. Anna is a strong and smart character, and you'll root for her from the beginning. It's also a great introduction for kiddos to this bit of history, and Giff includes actual show more photos of families being evicted from the time. Definitely recommended. show less

Lily loves to lie. The lies flow fast and easy. Each time she vows not to lie, another one slides right on out of her mouth. Lily just cannot help herself.

The setting is Rockaway, NJ where Lily, her grandmother and father spend idyllic summers. But the summer of 1944 is different and lives are changed because of WWII. Lily's best friend moves to Detroit where her father can build bombs, the seaside boardwalk is empty and Lily's father is going oversees to fight in the war.

Having lost a show more mother in childhood, Lily knows the fear of abandonment and loneliness. When a young Hungarian refugee arrives, Lily learns the unspeakable things Albert experienced in losing his family during Nazi occupation.

Slipping into her habit of pathological lying seems harmless until one places Albert's life in jeopardy.

This 1998 Newbery Honor book is highly recommended. The themes of loss, grief, friendship, the impact of war and the repercussions of actions are all packed into a mere 180 pages. show less

Hollis Woods is a foster child, and she's been billed as trouble. Ever since the past summer, she's run away from homes when she gets tired of being there. She's given a new chance, however, when she goes to live with an older woman named Josie, who connects with Hollis through their artistic ability. In between the chapters narrating "The Time with Josie," Hollis slowly explains what happened that caused her to start running.

Because of the similarity in plot - an independent heroine in show more search of a place to belong - I couldn't help but compare and contrast Hollis' story to The Great Gilly Hopkins. But after awhile, I stopped the mental comparison. Hollis has a different personality and different desires from Gilly. Even though she's "trouble" because of her running, Hollis shows kindness in her unwillingness to leave Josie alone when it becomes clear that the older woman has become more than normally forgetful. She does want a family, but she makes one where she is instead of trying to recreate the past. I really enjoyed this story, and I cheered for Hollis all the way. show less