Felix Baum, 12, from Austria-Hungary, works to resist Jewish deportation. He happens to be racing down the side street to where the carriage of
Archduke Franz Ferdinand was traitorously diverted in Bosnia, and witnesses his assassination without realizing who or what he is observing. This event is thought to have begun the complex and brutal war.
Kara Webb 14, from Britain, works alongside her nurse mother on a Red Cross train in France, hoping to one day become a certified nurse or a doctor. But her empathy for wounded soldiers compels her to disobey orders, as when she hides an injured enemy soldier named Baum. When discovered, this gets her in the kind of trouble that may well keep her from ever getting the education he’ll need to fulfill her dreams. But when the Germans dispense poison gas and the number of wounded increases, Kara is ordered to the battlefield to transport the wounded to the hospital train.
French Juliette has been cut off from her mother and brother in their attempts to find her father, who has been imprisoned by the enemy during the longest battle of the war. At Verdun, Juliette sells her red cap to help raise money to find her father. Kara buys Juliette’s red cap and gives it back to the girl. This cap will make its rounds among the five teen characters.
Dimitri Petrenko, 14, a tzarist of Russia is sent to the front with no weapon by a cruel commander, who is a Bolshevik. Left for dead, Dimitri is found by Juliette who nurses him back to health in a cave where she is living. When Dimitri recovers and with Russia embroiled in its own revolution he fights on the side of the French.
Innocent Elsa from Germany whose father is a German officer, is convinced that her homing pigeon will help victims of the war.
Each of these five young people experiences the horrors, hardship, and violence of war, and their lives will connect in subtle and interesting ways. That happens, in part, by following an Austrian war medal as it passes from one to the other characters over the five years. The coincidences necessary to make this multi-character plot work, are a bit implausible, but what with Ukraine at war it could be an important read for many.
Patricia Hruby Powell is the author of the award-winning books: Lift As You Climb; Josephine; Loving vs Virginia; and Struttin’ With Some Barbecue all signed and for sale at Jane Addams bookstore. Books forthcoming about women’s suffrage, Martha Graham, and Ella Fitzgerald. talesforallages.com
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