Marvelous Middle Grade Monday
Allies (Scholastic Press, 2019) by Alan Gratz is an amazing story of diverse parts of D-Day over the course of 24-hours through the eyes of seven different characters. Soldiers, paratroopers, medics, resistance fighters, a girl retrieving a forgotten bathing suit–so many in an impossible situation. Somehow the author fits it all together.
The story starts with sixteen-year-old Dee, a US soldier, who has a secret–one he can’t let his best friend discover. Will he survive the invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944? Will the others we meet?
Bestselling author Alan Gratz has written many books for young readers, including four more set in this time period–Grenade, Refugee, Projekt 1065, Prisoner B-3087. Read about all his books here. Read about the author here.
Read more about Allies, including awards, here.
A girl retrieving a forgotten bathing suit??? On D-Day??? Well, that sounds intriguing. I will try to check this one out. Thanks for telling me about it.
I know! It’s great.
I really enjoyed the way your wrote your synopsis! I absolutely loved this book. I don’t like watching movies about D-Day, but reading a book has a different impact and you really become invested in Gratz’s characters. Glad you liked the story!
I really enjoyed Refugee. I’ll have to check this out!
Interesting concept. I love history. I love the ideas of the author connecting together all the seemingly separate incidents.
I too loved REFUGEE and have had D-Day on my TBR list for several months now. Thanks for sharing your thoughts. They gave me the needed push to start this one soon.
This sounds so interesting with the different points of view. Glad you liked it so much.
What a novel way to tell the story of D-day, which is history even to us oldies.
I got this book at a library conference I went to last summer, but I haven’t read it yet. Reading this makes me want to move it up my list. Thanks for sharing. 🙂
Definitely move it up. My husband read it too.