Review by Booklist Review
Thirteen-year-old Rosemary is weary of her family's separation. She's spent three years living with an aunt and uncle, away from her parents and two brothers. As the Nazis come closer to their home in England, Rosemary and her family are reunited in order to evacuate to her paternal grandmother's home in Wisconsin. Upon arrival, Rosemary learns her family isn't only British and American; they're Ojibwe. Rosemary begins learning about her culture from her grandmother, though her father resists his heritage. Rosemary works to keep her family together through aiding her grandmother in her quest to win multiple categories at the fair. Grandmother has promised, if they succeed, she will lease Rosemary's father land--an offer that would allow them to stay together. Johnson's atmospheric writing captures both the beauty and tumult of the time. Rosemary's quiet voice and steadfast perseverance are a strong companion to themes of weighty parental expectations and the difficulty of healing from identity-related trauma. Rosemary's bicultural perspective offers a fresh, new take in the historical fiction realm.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Thirteen-year-old Rosemary yearns to share one home with her family, which proves a tall order in England at the start of WWII. As her parents struggle to find work, Rosemary and her brothers are sent to live separately with maternal relatives. But as living conditions worsen throughout England, the family reunite and relocate to Rosemary's father's native Wisconsin to move in with his mother. In the U.S., Rosemary bonds with her grandmother, who reveals that their family is Anishinaabe, and that Dad's having "made it a secret" contributed to a strained mother-son relationship. And though Rosemary grows to love her new home and learns more about her Indigenous heritage, she fears that her father and grandmother's antagonism will force the family to leave. The sparsely detailed wartime England setting swiftly gives way to the family's experience settling down in the States, a move that Johnson (The Luminous Life of Lucy Landry) describes with welcoming warmth and vibrancy. Rosemary's contending with worries regarding relocation, familial tensions, and war add tenderness to this gentle historical read. Ages 8--12. Agent: Jessica Schmeidler, Golden Wheat Literary. (July)
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
During World War II, a 13-year-old girl who always tries to keep the peace within her family discovers her Indigenous cultural roots and long-suppressed family secrets. Rosemary and her two younger brothers have been scattered across England for the past three years while their parents have sought stable employment. Rosemary has lived in London with critical Aunt Katie and Uncle John, who have little good to say about Rosemary's American father. Given the imminent threat of Germany's Luftwaffe bombing campaign, Dad, who's a veteran of the Great War, decides to reunite the family. They'll sail for America to stay with his estranged mother in Wisconsin. Grandmother Charlotte, whose mother was "a full-blooded Ojibwe woman" and father was from Scotland, introduces the children to Anishinaabemowin vocabulary and Ojibwe ways. Her grandmother proposes a private bargain to Rosemary: If she helps with her garden so she can win at the county fair, she'll lease Dad some land to build a home where the family can remain together, as Rosemary has long dreamed. The well-drawn rustic Wisconsin wilderness setting is enriched by the introduction of Anishinaabemowin terms for local flora, supplemented by a glossary. Johnson's novel sensitively unpacks the generational trauma of injustices and discrimination against Native peoples both in the U.S. and abroad. Rosemary and her father's side of the family are, like the author, of Indigenous and European descent. An uplifting and heartwarming novel that celebrates family and heritage. (map, author's note)(Historical fiction. 9-14) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
