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This tale opens in September 1944, during the fifth year of the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. Air raids, hunger, exhaustion, illness, and premature death are the constant companions of both adults and children. No one is spared the drudgery of survival or the slow-burning terror of persecution by the cruel Nazi regime. Johanna is the eldest child of her family. As the hope of rescue by Canadian paratroopers ebbs and fades, she helps her pregnant mother with chores and looks after her three-year-old sister. During the chaos, Johanna's father, a police officer, must stay behind, forced to work with German occupiers. Johanna and her mother walk the thirty kilometers to Apeldoorn by night, dependent upon chance and charity for what little food and shelter are available.
Johanna's point of view alternates with Rein's. The youngest of a family scattered by war, Rein spends his time with friends on the streets of Apeldoorn. He survives by stealing bread from the bakery he works at, closely monitored by Nazi soldiers and collaborators. Twelve-year-old Rein greatly admires his seventeen-year-old brother, Pieter, a bike courier for the Resistance who has escaped confinement in a concentration camp. Johanna and Rein's budding friendship helps to feed Johanna's family as they await the war's end and hopefully, reunions with loved ones.
This vibrant middle-grade novel is based upon the experiences of the author's in-laws during World War II. Riggers' meticulous prose and riveting storytelling bring the traumatic era of the failed Operation Market-Garden and the devastating "Hunger Winter" to life.
RECOMMENDED by the US Review