The first book in The Shouting Wind trilogy, about three generations of women in one family, follows a year in the life of Kay Leary, a 17 year-old girl in World War II. Determined not to get stuck with traditional women's war work, she makes the decision to leave home to join the WAAF. So begins a story about coming of age, love, loss, war, morality, friendship and laughter. Working as a radio telephone operator at a fully operational air base, she makes new friends and finds love with a handsome navigator, only to discover that in these dangerous times she will need every ounce of emotional and moral strength she can muster as planes go missing, crews die en masse, and towns burn beneath the roar of the Lancasters.

Although the book is simply written and slightly clunky, as is so often the case with writing for young adults, the little details of WAAF life and wartime entertainment are very evocative. Newbery writes with balance and fairness, considering the impact of the war on the brave British air crews and on those praying for their success, but also taking into consideration the futility of the extensive bombing raids on German towns which killed so many civilians unnecessarily. One of my main criticisms would be the way in which certain things - abbreviations such as WAAF, CND and officer titles, and the types of bombs used by the Germans - go unexplained. Having said that, it didn't detract too much from my enjoyment, and when I finished the book I looked up the 'doodlebug' V1 and 'flying gas mains' V2 bombs, pictures of WAAFs in uniform, and film footage of Lancaster bombers flying, and found myself moved to tears. Combining these physical images and sounds with the novel brought it to life and was particularly thought-provoking.

A trilogy spanning the generations like this helps young people to connect with women in generations past, and to realise that they were young people in very different, often harder, circumstances to modern society as it is today. I first read this trilogy at secondary school, and I will be reading it again yet, and hopefully passing it on to my children, especially to a daughter, in a few years' time. ( )