For Freedom

June 2, 2003
Based on a true story, Bradley's (Ruthie's Gift) gripping, high-stakes adventure about a French girl who joins the Resistance during WW II offers insight into a young spy's sacrifices and bravery. When the Germans begin to occupy France, 13-year-old Suzanne, who narrates, focuses more on her dreams of singing professionally than on the war she thinks could never hurt her. She tries to follow her pragmatic father's repeated admonition, "Obey the rules and no one gets hurt." But her views change when a bombing leaves her best friend mute from trauma, German soldiers seize her family's home and she realizes "sometimes people disappeared." Family relationships and the intensely personal price of war prove more strongly sketched than Suzanne's love of music, even though it is the travel occasioned by Suzanne's growing success in the opera that makes her useful to the Resistance. Bradley effectively portrays the initial allure when the family doctor recruits Suzanne, then 16, as "number twenty-two" (names would be too dangerous to use), and then gradually tarnishes that glamour to reveal the heavy burden, isolation and imminent danger. While one or two touches seem forced (particularly when Suzanne is betrayed), the details and the tone have the ring of authenticity. A highly compelling look at the covert battle for freedom. Ages 10-14.

June 1, 2003
Gr 6-8-Life for Suzanne David, a 13-year-old French schoolgirl and music apprentice, dramatically changes in May, 1940, when she and her best friend witness the brutal death of a neighbor when a bomb drops directly in front of them. Soon the Germans take over Cherbourg, and the Davids are forced from their home into poverty. Then Suzanne is given the opportunity to help the Allies. Bravely, she risks her life, family, and singing career in order to spy for the Resistance. The pace of this suspenseful novel, told in first person and based on a true story, moves swiftly into action within the first chapter, showing the young heroine as strong, courageous, and clever. Filled, but not laden, with the events of the war, and peppered with French language and the culture of music, this novel will appeal to readers who enjoy history and espionage.-Kimberly Monaghan, Vernon Area Public Library, IL

Copyright 2003 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from April 1, 2003
Gr. 6-12. Teenage Suzanne David is so focused on her dreams of becoming an opera star that she barely notices the growing Nazi presence in her French hometown of Cherbourg, until an air raid in 1940 literally puts the death and devastation at her feet. Her innocent appearance, iron will, and schedule as a singer-performer attract the attention of a local Resistance leader, who recruits her to become a spy and entrusts her to transport encoded Allied messages. Based on interviews with the real Suzanne David (who married an American soldier in 1945 and moved to Tennessee), this taut, engrossing World War II novel instantly immerses readers in the horrors faced by everyday citizens during the Nazi Occupation. The real focus, however, is the skin-crawling suspense story about one of France's youngest spies. Each chapter brings new intrigue and often shocking revelations, made all the more intense by the facts about codes and disguises and the fast-paced, first-person narration. There aren't many accounts for young readers about the French Resistance, and from setup to conclusion, this one resonates with authenticity, excitement, and heart. The teenage hero who must keep her spying a secret, even from her parents, will thrill historical fiction fans.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2003, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2003
Convent girl and aspiring opera star Suzanne, thirteen, finds her world almost completely changed when the Germans bomb Cherbourg in 1940 and occupy the city. But as she begins her career as a star soprano, Suzanne finds another vocation as well: she becomes a spy for the Resistance. Suzanne is engagingly modest about her espionage activities, and the first-person account is lively with details of life under occupation.

(Copyright 2003 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)