Product Description

2000 Bologna Ragazzi Non-Fiction for Young Adults Award

Shortlisted, 2000 British Columbia Round Table Information Book Award

1999 Teacher Liberian Magazine, Best of the Best issue

Shortlisted, 2001 Rocky Mountain Award

Too Young To Fight is a book of recollections from some of this country's best-loved writers of children's literature. The contributors were children and teenagers during World War II. Though they were far from the fighting and, indeed, too young to participate, they were old enough to remember their impressions and feelings. As they grew up in a tumultuous era, some seemed miraculously untouched while others were profoundly affected. All experienced changes in their lives that shaped the adults they became.

For anyone who did not experience it, this book provides fascinating insight and a tangible link to a formative period in our history. For those who were young themselves at the time, the collection will stir memories and stories long-forgotten. It is our hope that those memories will be shared by people of all ages, and preserved for generations to come.

Contributors include:

• Roch Carrier,
• Christopher Chapman,
• Brian Doyle,
• Priscilla Galloway,
• Dorothy Joan Harris,
• Monica Hughes,
• Joy Kogawa with Timothy Nakayama,
• Jean Little,
• Janet Lunn,
• Claire Mackay, and
• Budge Wilson.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #933434 in Books
• Published on: 1999-08-01
• Released on: 1999-08-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 207 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Galloway (Snake Dreamer) and 11 other Canadians, most of them authors of children's books, share their recollections of growing up during WWII. Taken together, the pieces evoke the leisurely feeling of stories shared around the family dinner table. The most memorable moments come through in the details: Janet Lunn discusses her desire to hide her grandparents' German names; Dorothy Joan Harris describes the rising tensions in the late 1930s in Japan, where her father was an English professor, that finally drove the family to Canada, as well as her inability to reconcile the stories of "ferocious" Japanese soldiers with the kindness she had known there; Jean Little writes of the "War Guests," British children sent to Canada to keep safe during wartime. In one of the book's most poignant passages, filmmaker Christopher Chapman quotes from a letter from his brother overseas, which the family received several days after learning of his death. Other standouts include a lyrical entry by Joy Kogawa and Timothy Nakayama, Japanese-Canadian siblings who were forced to leave their home and relocate to a "spindly old ghost town," and Brian Doyle's stream-of-consciousness chronicle of the day following Japan's surrender, which is at once humorous and haunting. An intimate glimpse of the ways in which the war affected home life even on peaceful shores. Ages 12-up. (Apr.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
Grade 8 Up-Eleven Canadian writers provide slice-of-life recollections from the home front. Monica Hughes and Jean Little highlight family dynamics, school life, and the stresses on each of their families as a result of the country's military participation in the war. Brian Doyle's remarkable piece offers a vivid description of three events that happened on the same day-a street celebration marking the end of the war, the news of the death of a soldier he knew, and the birth of his baby brother. Although the memoirs are informative and evocative, many represent a narrow cross-section of middle-class and well-to-do families. Black-and-white photos and reproductions accompany the text. This book will be of particular interest to public libraries in Canada, in American communities near the Canadian border, and to larger libraries in both countries.
Jack Forman, Mesa College Library, San Diego
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
In this anthology, 11 Canadian children's and YA authors describe what it was like to be a child during World War II. More than stories about victory gardens, their accounts recall the emotional landscape of the home front, neighbor boys who return from the war greatly changed (if they return at all), life in an internment camp, and how they felt when victory was announced. There are no battle tales here. The focus is strictly at home, where the war is experienced through radio coverage, letters from family members, and the lens of Hollywood. The authors manage to convey the patriotic fervor of the era without giving way to a romanticized or sanitized portrait of wartime. American readers are unlikely to know the contributors to this rich compilation, but the lack of name recognition won't be a problem; it's the small details of the experiences that will draw them in. This will be popular among historical fiction fans as well as secondary teachers looking for read-aloud material. Randy Meyer
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