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MY WARTIME SUMMERS

Name: MY WARTIME SUMMERS
Author: Jane Cutler
ISBN: 0-374-35111-2

by Jane Cutler ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1994

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Ellen Parker finishes fifth grade in 1942 and spends that summer playing with kids on her block, attacking unsuspecting German refugees (they could be spies, she argues), and waiting for her young Uncle Bob to be drafted. When Bob leaves for basic training, Cutler follows Ellen through three more summers as she grows and changes from a tomboy into a young lady. Ellen befriends Lisa-Lotte, the German Jew she had thought was a spy, learns about sex (doesn't believe a word of it), develops breasts. When Uncle Bob returns from Europe, he has also changed. But unlike Ellen's, his is an unnatural transformation caused by the war: from youthful and carefree to morbid and vacant. Still, Ellen is convinced Uncle Bob will recover just as she recovered from her own difficult time. Unfortunately for the story, Ellen is a peevish and unpleasant character, and the people around her are two-dimensional. Especially annoying is her mother, who was married right out of high school, constantly urges Ellen to ``fit in,'' and, as late as 1942, doesn't realize that Hitler is persecuting Jews. Cutler's (Darcy and Gran Don't Like Babies, 1993, etc.) four summers idea is also ill-conceived: Inconclusive events separated by long periods of time result in a disjointed narrative rather than a purposeful whole. Ellen the annoying little girl becomes Ellen the platitudinous teenage sap. So much for happy endings. (Fiction. 10+)

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1994

ISBN: 0-374-35111-2

Page Count: 176

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1994

Categories:

CHILDREN'S HISTORICAL FICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
SUSAN MARCUS BENDS THE RULES
by Jane Cutler

- BOOK REVIEW
GUTTERSNIPE
by Jane Cutler and illustrated by Emily Arnold McCully

- BOOK REVIEW
ROSE AND RILEY COME AND GO
by Jane Cutler & illustrated by Thomas F. Yezerski

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THE SCHOOL FOR THIEVES

From the School for Thieves series , Vol. 1

by Peter Burns ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 26, 2025

A thrilling first installment in an adventurous new series.

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An orphaned street urchin is recruited into an elite school for thieves.

In an alternate world where France is the dominant world power, 13-year-old Tom Morgan has had to scrimp, starve, and steal on the streets of London to survive. Born into a workhouse, he doesn’t know anything about his father, while his mother may have been from North Africa. One thing he does know is the sort of cruelty that awaits the poor who are sent to the workhouse, and he’s determined not to go back. But when their camp is raided and his friends are captured by workhouse agents, the only thing Tom can think of is how to get them out. Enter the Corsair, a cunning and mysterious man with a proposition: He wants to recruit Tom into Beaufort’s School for Deceptive Arts. From nabbing treasures to forging identity papers, Beaufort’s promises to teach Tom everything he needs to know to become a Shadow Thief and a member of the Shadow League, the secret global organization that helps keep the world’s political power in balance. But Beaufort’s has its own rules and secrets, and if Tom is to survive long enough to help his friends, he’ll need to figure them out quickly. Clever and gripping, this fast-paced boarding school story will appeal to fans of the Mysterious Benedict Society and Spy School series.

A thrilling first installment in an adventurous new series. (Adventure. 10-14)