I’ve been a bit of a machine with books lately and while I write reviews of some of them for various outlets, a lot just slip by unmentioned. I’m going to attempt a regular feature where I discuss the books I’ve finished in the previous week. Some weeks will be silent if I haven’t finished anything. Others might feature one book while other detail many. We’ll see.This past week I read an early draft of Love by the Morning Star by Laura L. Sullivan. This YA book is the third by the author and is scheduled for publication in early June. In Love by the Morning Star, which takes place during the early parts of World War II, Anna and Hannah (unrelated) both find themselves undercover in the home of a wealthy family. Hannah, half Jewish, is escaping persecution in Germany, and Anna is on an ill-defined undercover mission. It’s not a bad set-up for a story! And yet it is. The story I mean.
The thing about successful YA novels about World War II is that there are so many to pick from. One of my most recent favorites is Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein (2012), which was a much less innocent look at Nazi Germany, but is much more captivating. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (2006) is pretty wonderful and The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank (1958), you might have heard of it, is a must read.
Young adult fiction targets a broad age range (10-15?) and I think most readers within that grouping would be disappointed by Love by the Morning Star. But, perhaps for parents of children at the lower end of the range, Love by the Morning Star is an okay introduction to the much more exciting reading that awaits them.
This post originally appeared on Kate’s Point of View. © Kate. All rights reserved.