RESISTANCE

This WWII story, more personal than political, shows one French girl’s struggle with the Resistance and the sacrifices and decisions forced on her family. Fifteen-year-old Marianne’s father, a soldier killed early in the war, told her to protect her deaf younger brother Michel. However, Michel and Maman insist on risking the family’s safety to work with the Resistance. Marianne’s life centers on men, including two German officers (one an obvious and repulsive rape threat, another billeted at her house and falling for her) and a sick English soldier hiding in her woodshed. Marianne wants only to quit involvement in the Resistance and be safe; but where is safety during wartime? Graber’s portrayal of the war, while moving, remains circumscribed within this village; commitment to the Resistance is motivated individually rather than by a broader sense of the Third Reich’s goals and atrocities. Characters and plot are stock but competent. (prologue, epilogue) (Historical fiction. YA)