THE ROMEO AND JULIET CODE

Eleven-year-old Londoner Felicity has been left by her parents, Danny and Winnie, for the duration of World War II at the mansion her grandmother, uncle and aunt share on a Maine bluff overlooking the sea. Secrets abound, and adults are strangely, sometimes even bizarrely wary of informing her about any of them, although that leaves her feeling isolated and abandoned. Why is Uncle Gideon receiving encoded messages from Danny—all postmarked from Portugal? Who is the mysterious Captain Derek locked away in the upstairs bedroom? What caused the estrangement between Gideon and Danny, and what role did Winnie play? After she joins forces with her 12-year-old male cousin, the two begin to solve the mysteries, one at a time, leaving Felicity—and astute readers—with some astonishing surprises. She is endearingly portrayed, and the back story, so gradually revealed, provides a peek into the depths of the souls of some of the adults. The pacing is deliberately slow, yet Felicity’s growing awareness of how she can help heal the troubled adults makes this an eminently satisfying read. (Historical fiction. 9-13)