What does it mean to have courage? Nielsen (Words on Fire, 2019) examines this question through the stories of five tweens in the midst of WWI, offering varied perspectives and showing children caught on each side of the war. There is Felix, a Jewish boy in Austria-Hungary whose family must find a way to survive; Kara in Great Britain, volunteering with the Red Cross; Juliette in France, who is trying to save her imprisoned father; Dimitri, a Russian soldier; and Elsa, a girl from Germany. Over the course of five years, their lives will become interconnected in ways they never thought possible. Nielsen doesn't shy away from the terrors of war and writes about survival in an accessible way for young readers. While the main characters may suffer loss, ultimately their stories are of hope and having the courage to stand up for what you believe is right, even in the face of the most dire circumstances. A riveting historical tale.

Five teenagers from across Europe lead coincidentally intersecting lives during World War I.The day that 12-year-old Felix witnesses the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, everything changes. His father goes to war, and Felix loses the relative safety afforded to Jews in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. His city is invaded by imperial Russia, and the Jews and Roma of Lemberg might be shipped to internment camps. With the help of Elsa, a German girl, Felix and his mother escape. Though they go their separate ways, Felix and Elsa will meet again, along with British Kara, French Juliette, and Russian Dimitri. Kara wants to be a doctor and works as an orderly on a Red Cross train, Juliette seeks her lost family, and Dimitri is a miserable soldier in the trenches. The chain of coincidences that repeatedly bring these teens into each other's lives is increasingly improbable until they resolve five years later, on the last day of the war to end all wars. While the events are packed with historical facts, the overall framing feels ahistorical: the British are kind, competent rescuers; to be a good German requires being opposed to one's countrymen; and a Russian sees "freedom" from both the tsar and Lenin in the land-mined French countryside.Adventures across a massive war and pandemic make for a tidy tribute to common understanding. (author's note) (Historical fiction. 10-13)