Reviews

Hettie and the London Blitz: A World War II Survival Story by Jenni L. Walsh

addi3565's review

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful lighthearted fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

thedizzyreader's review

3.0

Perhaps because this one covered such a large amount of time (six years?) in so few pages, the pacing felt off and I enjoyed it less than other titles in this series.

panda_incognito's review

3.0

This book covers the span of six years in just over a hundred pages, and it makes the book feel very rushed. The story provides solid historical information about the London Blitz and long-term evacuation efforts from that time, but it never went deep enough into the characters' experiences to satisfy me, since the author had to keep moving on to cover the passage of time.

My biggest critique of this book, however, isn't the pacing. I can accept the pacing issues as necessary for telling this story to a young audience, but I was disappointed by how sanitized this story is in comparison to others from the same series. I couldn't help negatively comparing this to [b:Ruth and the Night of Broken Glass: A World War II Survival Story|43586151|Ruth and the Night of Broken Glass A World War II Survival Story|Emma Carlson Berne|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1560220508l/43586151._SX50_.jpg|67815104], which is powerful, immediate, intense, and honest about the sheer amount of trauma involved.

This book deals with the trauma of family separation and has some scenes of peril related to bombings, but it feels sanitized overall.

Spoiler

Everyone in this girl's family survives, and their house is still standing at the end of the war. Her hosts' two sons both survive the war, and everyone in her best friend's family survives as well.

The ending felt rushed and overly happy, and it didn't feel authentic enough to the time period.

This level of good fortune within Hettie's family and inner circle is statistically possible, but it seemed like the author just wanted to tie a bow on things and make it seem like everything was fine, when a lot of people were NOT fine. I would have been more satisfied if the author had opted for a happy ending for Hettie's family while representing heavier losses beyond them. However, on the positive side, this book is a lighter read for sensitive children. If a child wants to read this series, but isn't sure that they can handle some of the heavier content, this would be a good title to start with.

jennybeastie's review

3.0

12 year old Hettie (at least at the beginning of the book) is full of anxiety regarding WWII. She lives in London with her family, is bombed in the blitz, and evacuated to the countryside for much of the war. Packs a lot into a short book. Hettie is hard to like at first, given her many fears, but she finds a way to keep her family connected over distance and time by writing down and sharing her memories. Does a great job of conveying just how long some of those evacuation placements lasted, and the impact on younger children, who didn't necessarily remember their original family well. What an unimaginable time of displacement and upheaval.

america_maxon1096's review

challenging emotional sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

oceanwriter's review against another edition

5.0

I think this is my favorite of the Girls Survive series so far. A lot of interesting dynamics and I’m glad it covered beyond the initial outbreak of the Blitz.