Compassionate and complex.
An orphan in occupied France during World War II finds his courage and a sense of family.
Thirteen-year-old Lucas Dubois is a foundling who’s growing up in the abbey orphanage in the village of Lamorlaye. He has such a tender heart that the other boys call him “Petit Éclair.” Lucas rescues a litter of kittens from being drowned on a nun’s orders and goes to hide them in one of the stables left empty in nearby Chantilly after their owners took their thoroughbreds and fled from the Nazis. But the stable is already in use—Alice, the teenage daughter of an English horse trainer, is protecting a racehorse from being commissioned for the war until she can be smuggled to Kentucky in a month’s time. Lucas’ job delivering groceries takes him into the nearby Lebensborn, a maternity home that takes babies who meet “Aryan” standards away from their young mothers and sends them for adoption by Nazi families. There, Lucas befriends Claire, who’s desperate to keep her baby, and his empathy leads him to a rash and dangerous nighttime flight along the five-kilometer horse training track known as the Lions’ Run. This immersive story is driven by Lucas’ emotional yearnings and the sometimes complicated relationships among the well-drawn characters, but the history and the specific setting are accurate and carefully delineated, creating a strong sense of place. Klassen’s spot art and map of the region adorn the text.
Compassionate and complex. (author’s note) (Historical fiction. 8-13)Pub Date: Feb. 3, 2026
ISBN: 9781250392817
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2025
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic.
Chainani works an elaborate sea change akin to Gregory Maguire’s Wicked (1995), though he leaves the waters muddied.
Every four years, two children, one regarded as particularly nice and the other particularly nasty, are snatched from the village of Gavaldon by the shadowy School Master to attend the divided titular school. Those who survive to graduate become major or minor characters in fairy tales. When it happens to sweet, Disney princess–like Sophie and her friend Agatha, plain of features, sour of disposition and low of self-esteem, they are both horrified to discover that they’ve been dropped not where they expect but at Evil and at Good respectively. Gradually—too gradually, as the author strings out hundreds of pages of Hogwarts-style pranks, classroom mishaps and competitions both academic and romantic—it becomes clear that the placement wasn’t a mistake at all. Growing into their true natures amid revelations and marked physical changes, the two spark escalating rivalry between the wings of the school. This leads up to a vicious climactic fight that sees Good and Evil repeatedly switching sides. At this point, readers are likely to feel suddenly left behind, as, thanks to summary deus ex machina resolutions, everything turns out swell(ish).
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic. (Fantasy. 11-13)Pub Date: May 14, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-06-210489-2
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013
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An emotional, much-needed historical graphic novel.
Sandy and his family, Japanese Canadians, experience hatred and incarceration during World War II.
Sandy Saito loves baseball, and the Vancouver Asahi ballplayers are his heroes. But when they lose in the 1941 semifinals, Sandy’s dad calls it a bad omen. Sure enough, in December 1941, Japan bombs Pearl Harbor in the U.S. The Canadian government begins to ban Japanese people from certain areas, moving them to “dormitories” and setting a curfew. Sandy wants to spend time with his father, but as a doctor, his dad is busy, often sneaking out past curfew to work. One night Papa is taken to “where he [is] needed most,” and the family is forced into an internment camp. Life at the camp isn’t easy, and even with some of the Asahi players playing ball there, it just isn’t the same. Trying to understand and find joy again, Sandy struggles with his new reality and relationship with his father. Based on the true experiences of Japanese Canadians and the Vancouver Asahi team, this graphic novel is a glimpse of how their lives were affected by WWII. The end is a bit abrupt, but it’s still an inspiring and sweet look at how baseball helped them through hardship. The illustrations are all in a sepia tone, giving it an antique look and conveying the emotions and struggles. None of the illustrations of their experiences are overly graphic, making it a good introduction to this upsetting topic for middle-grade readers.
An emotional, much-needed historical graphic novel. (afterword, further resources) (Graphic historical fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Oct. 5, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5253-0334-0
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Kids Can
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2021
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