THE COASTWATCHER

Hugh, age 11, spends his days staring through his binoculars at the water off the coast of South Carolina, looking for enemy activity. It is 1943 and the bombing of Pearl Harbor has put the whole country on alert. What seems like just a way to pass the time during a long hot summer, turns into a dangerous mystery as Hugh spots an object floating just off shore and strange activity at an abandoned beach house. At first fascinated by a war half a world away, Hugh learns the ugly truth when the battle comes to his own doorstep. Tragedy of another kind threatens the family as Hugh’s sister Sally comes down with a fever. With whole sections of cities quarantined against a polio epidemic, any illness is cause for alarm. Deftly written, this story manages to braid real history with a fictional mystery, creating a tension that builds from beginning to end. Educational and suspenseful. (Fiction. 8-12)