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Molly’s Fire © 2000 Janet Lee Carey BOOKLIST Review April, 2000 When Molly’s family receives word that her father’s plane has been shot down over Holland by the Germans and he is presumed dead, she refuses to believe it. Lieutenant Fowler has survived crashes before, and Molly is certain he will send a sign that he is still alive. … Molly steadfastly holds onto the hope, especially after she spies a German prisoner of war carrying a pocket watch that looks exactly like her father’s. Carey paints a realistic portrait of wartime deprivation on the American home front. Subplots involving prejudices (against a friend who is of Japanese descent, a woman suspected of being a spy because she speaks German) And Molly attempts to re-create a stained glass window depicting St. George and the Dragon, are also well handled… Give this to fans of Patricia Reilly Giff’s Lily’s Crossing.”
VOYA Fiction Reviews August, 2000 Set during World War II, this title chronicles the experiences of a Maine family as they cope with the loss of their fighter pilot father/husband, who has been shot down and is missing in action. Assuming that he is dead, the family holds a funeral service for him. George Fowler’s thirteen-year-old daughter doesn’t believe that he is dead. They had a close relationship, and before he left, he gave her the chain to his pocket watch. He told her that although they would not be together for a while, he would reattach the chain to the watch when he returned, and they could “start right where we left off.” Molly puts great store in this promise, believing that the watch and the chain will keep her father safe. When Molly and her friends to watch German prisoners of war working in the logging camps, one POW drops a pocket watch. Convinced that it is her father’s, Molly becomes obsessed with proving it… Molly’s tenuous relationship with her mother compels her to look for any sign that her father is still alive. The story reads well and includes a variety of characters… This story will appeal to young readers with an interest in World War II. |
