The Second World War is entering its final days and in occupied France, little acts of bravery will get you the bad sort of notice. Any one who wants to survive lays low. But Lucas has a hard time doing that. Searching for a safe place to stash the kittens, he stumbles over a young English girl who is trying to smuggle her horse out of France. And they reluctantly agree to keep each other's secrets.
Lucas is not yet done doing his good deeds. He smuggles goodies to his fellow orphans. He slips extra rations to a family that has a suspiciously large number of mouths to feed. His everyday acts of kindness bring him into contact with the Resistance, which allows him to become a courier. And a rash act of loyalty to a young mother brings him into dangerous conflict with the Nazis. It might all very dangerous but what else can one do? And he is far from alone: everywhere there are people helping each other and resisting the occupiers.
Like her Pax books, Pennypacker has created another formidable allegory masquerading as a children's book. As in those books, the material is definitely on the intense side: animal cruelty, genocide, eugenics, child abduction, and concentration camps, amongst other topics. Her overall theme about our obligation as humans to choose, in the face of fascism, to either commit small acts of resistance or to acquiesce to collaboration is strong tea. There is no way for a single lone orphan to topple an evil regime, but if no one tries then there is no hope. That's an important message in a time when resistance seems to carry such a high cost.
It's intelligently written, entertaining, and thought-provoking story. If one is going to ban books, these are the type of books a government should fear.
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