ELLY ROBIN GOES TO WAR

In this eighth installment of a nine-volume historical YA series, a capable American teenager searches for her lost love during the latter half of World War I.

Seventeen-year-old pianist Elly Robin had spent months as a “fugitive anarchist,” due to a false accusation. As she hid out, she caught a report that Edwin Friend, the young man with whom she’d fallen in love, was dead. So, she’s ecstatic when a newsreel shows a still-living and smiling Edwin, part of a squadron of American pilots currently flying for the French. She soon hops on an ocean liner destined for Le Havre, France. She’s a gifted pianist and a skilled mechanic, and she shows off the latter skill when working on ambulances; many Americans have become ambulance drivers for the British Voluntary Aid Detachment. She’s also an amateur pilot, more or less, having once evaded police in a seaplane—despite the fact that it was the very first time she’d ever flown an aircraft. Elly bribes aviators to get her airborne, first as a passenger, and later in the pilot’s seat. Meanwhile, although Edwin miraculously walks away from a plane crash, he’s now in the heart of enemy territory and miles away from the French border. He takes refuge in an unspecified German village with the widowed mother of two young children, and later in the port city of Koblenz; he struggles to remain incognito by becoming as proficient as possible in German. As Elly continues to look for Edwin, it seems only a matter of time before the young lovers’ paths will converge once again.

As in the preceding volumes, Quaver deftly weaves historical elements into this fictional tale. The separated couple’s dual plotlines unfold as WWI rages on, and a handful of real-life people of the era make appearances. For example, Elly has more than one run-in with Gertrude Stein, as well as the famed American writer’s partner, Alice B. Toklas. Of the two storylines, Edwin’s is the more engaging; he develops an attachment to the family that takes him in, and he’s constantly on guard, fearing that someone, at any given time, will recognize that he’s not from Germany. Elly, by contrast, faces considerably less peril. She strives to be an aviator merely for the experience and later flies planes simply to prove her skills; she even acknowledges that her yearning to find Edwin is an “excuse” to realize a more carefree, adventurous life. Nevertheless, the story picks up speed when Elly agrees to be a spy, putting her closer to a potential reunion with Edwin and leading to a blistering final act. Along the way, Quaver offers vivid descriptions of the landscapes the characters inhabit: “One of the few buildings left, a two-story affair, was burning. The fire wasn’t far advanced, yellow flames just beginning to flick out of empty windows like serpents’ tongues.” The author’s accompanying black-and-white illustrations are simple, although a nighttime flight over a river and mountains provides a pristine display of moonlit shadows.

A riveting adventure with spirited prose and plenty of history.