RESISTANCE

Vichy, 1942: French teenager Paul Tessier, an artist never far from his drawing pad, assumes charge of his family after his father is taken prisoner by German troops. But when his Jewish best friend, Henri Levy, becomes the target of Nazi sympathizers in his small French village, Paul, along with his family, is compelled to act. They enlist in the Resistance movement and arrange to smuggle Henri to Paris, where he will join his parents in hiding. Jablonski’s text admirably mixes the drudgery of day-to-day activity with the horrors of life during wartime. Her collaborator’s drawings do wonders to ratchet up the intensity of the story line; Purvis’s knack for facial expressions conveys a depth otherwise missing in the dialogue. The graphic design enjoys mixed success, however: While the inlays of Paul’s own artwork throughout the text are quite clever, the speech bubbles are confusingly sequenced across the panels and often demand re-reading. The book’s introductory exposition and appended author’s note are not only helpful but necessary for young readers. An honorable attempt to illuminate the realities of life during war. (Graphic historical fiction. 12 & up)