WILLOW RUN

This is a rare, vivid glimpse of the wartime sacrifices of American families who stayed behind during WWII. Eleven-year-old Meggie Dillon’s story begins in 1944 in Rockaway, N.Y., just as her family’s moving to Michigan’s Willow Run so her father can work in a B-24 bomber factory. Meggie imagines a great adventure, but without the accompanying trauma. For one thing, the family leaves her often-embarrassing German-born grandfather behind, and she feels guilty for being secretly glad. She misses her best friend Lily Mollahan of Lily’s Crossing (1997), her new home is as ugly as a rabbit hutch and worst of all, she worries about her brother Eddie, off fighting in Europe. Giff expertly captures Meggie’s genuinely childlike free associations, her dry sense of humor and her moral development, as Grandpa’s words sink in: “You have to dig deep before you judge a person.” Spam and spies, 1940s songs and Victrolas and a lively cast of characters make wartime America pop to life in this finely wrought story of cowardice, courage and digging deep. (Fiction. 9-12)