Skylark and Wallcreeper - Hardcover

Carelli, Anne O'Brien

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1499807457 ISBN 13: 9781499807455

Publisher: Yellow Jacket, 2018

Synopsis

While helping her granny Collette evacuate to a makeshift shelter in Brooklyn during Superstorm Sandy, Lily uncovers secrets of her grandmother's past as a member of the French Resistance during WWII.

Queens, 2012.

Hurricane Sandy is flooding New York City, and Lily is at a nursing home with her grandmother, Collette. Lily visits Collette often, as she is beginning to lose her memories. When the National Guard shows up to evacuate the building and take them to safety at the Park Slope armory in Brooklyn, Lily's granny suddenly produces a red box she's hidden in a closet for years. Once they get to safety, Lily opens the box, where she finds an old, beautiful Montblanc pen. Granny tells Lily that the pen is very important and that she has to take care of it, as well as some letters written in French.

But Lily loses the pen in the course of helping other nursing home residents, and as she searches the city trying to find it, she learns more about her grandmother's past in France and begins to uncover the significance of the pen with the help of her best friend, a quirky pen expert, and a larger-than-life, off-Broadway understudy. Told in alternating sections (2012 and 1944), this engaging book explores a deep friendship during difficult times and the importance of family.

About this title

About the Author

Anne O'Brien Carelli is the author of adult nonfiction and the picture book Amina's New Friends. She has always been fascinated by the French Resistance, and studied history at Case Western Reserve University. For her PhD, Anne researched psychology of the gifted. Originally from Ann Arbor, Michigan, Anne lives in the Hudson River Valley in upstate New York. This is her debut middle grade novel.

Reviews

Gr 4-6-Superstorm Sandy and the French Resistance in World War II are cleverly woven together in this intergenerational story about 12-year-old Lily and her beloved grandmother, Collette. In October 2012, Lily is visiting Collette in a Queens nursing home when the storm hits. When the nursing home floods, Lily helps evacuate residents, organize food, and reassure and resettle the residents in a Brooklyn shelter. Her worried, stranded mother accedes to Lily and Collette's request to stay together until the nursing home reopens. Anxious and distraught, Collette entrusts Lily with a small red box containing a Montblanc pen of seemingly great significance. When Lily accidentally loses the pen, a frantic search begins. With the help of her best friend, Johnny; a pen expert; and his French-speaking daughter, Lily embarks on a quest to retrieve the pen and uncover her grandmother's unknown past. In alternating chapters, Collette's dangerous 1944 participation in the French Resistance in Brume, France, unfolds. Secret signatures, harrowing missions, a special friendship, and code names are revealed to readers and eventually discovered by Lily. Lily is spirited, compassionate, resourceful, and independent. This lively story is enriched by vivid depictions of Superstorm Sandy's turmoil and impact, actions of supportive staff and helpful strangers, her grandmother's daring deeds during World War II, and Lily's placating, dutiful but often disingenuous cellphone calls to her concerned mother. VERDICT Lily and her grandmother's juxtaposed stories of bravery will captivate middle grade readers and spark interest in better understanding the life, times, and experiences of older generations.-Gerry Larson, formerly at Durham School of the Arts, NCα(c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Edition details

• Publisher: Yellow Jacket
• Publication date: 2018
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1499807457
• ISBN 13: 9781499807455
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 416