When eleven-year-old Ellie’s older brother Jimmy is drafted into World War II, she joins the ranks of those who wait and worry on the home front. Ellie has classmates, teachers, and neighbors with loved ones in the war, but are any of those soldiers as special as Jimmy? Can anyone understand how she feels? For Ellie, the answer to that question comes in fits and starts over the course of this complex and moving story that also brings details of neighborhood, school, and family life in 1943 into full relief. Mary Ann Rodman incorporates the best and the worst of those times into Ellie’s story, from the lively music and sense of common purpose to the racism revealed in the common use of the term “Japs.” For Ellie, Jimmy’s absence does more than upset the rhythm of her daily life; it also opens her eyes to things she never noticed before. As the people around her deal with uncertainty and fear, and as Ellie experiences unthinkable loss, she must come to terms with the way war changes things and find a way to move on. In doing so, she finds that looking to the future with hope, and even humor, is the best way to honor the memory of her spirited brother. (Ages 10–14)