local_shipping   Free Standard Shipping on all orders $25+ and use Coupon Code SummerReading for an additional 20% off!

  • Lines of Courage

Lines of Courage

Publication Date
May 17, 2022
Genre / Grade Band
Fiction /  4th − 5th
Language
English
Lines of Courage

Description

Jennifer A. Nielsen, award-winning author of A Night Divided and Rescue, artfully weaves together the stories of five kids living through World War I, each of whom holds the key to the others' futures... if they are lucky -- and brave -- enough to find each other.

A powerful, absorbing story that shines a light on an often overlooked chapter in human history. -- Alan Gratz, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Refugee

World War I stretches its cruel fingers across Europe, where five young people, each from different backgrounds and nations, face the terror of battle, the deprivations of hunger, and all the awful challenges of war.

Felix, from Austria-Hungary, longs for the bravery to resist Jewish deportations before his own family can be taken.

Kara, from Britain, dreams of someday earning her Red Cross pin and working as a nurse -- or even a doctor.

Juliette, of France, hopes her family can remain knitted together, despite her father's imprisonment, as the war's longest battle stretches on and on.

Elsa, from Germany, hopes her homing pigeon might one day bring her a friend from out of the chaos.

And Dimitri, of Russia, wants only to survive the front, where he's been sent with no weapon.

None of them will find exactly what they want. But the winds of fate may cross their paths to give each of them just what they need. And in this remarkable exploration of World War I by critically acclaimed author Jennifer A. Nielsen, they will discover that friendship and courage can light the way through the most frightening of nights.

Publication date
May 17, 2022
Genre
Fiction
ISBN-13
9781338620931
Lexile Measure
740
Publisher
Scholastic Press
BISAC categories
JUV016080 - Juvenile Fiction | Historical | Military & Wars
JUV016040 - Juvenile Fiction | Historical | Europe
JUV075000 - Juvenile Fiction | War & Military
Library of Congress categories
Courage
Historical fiction
World War, 1914-1918
Youth
War fiction
Resilience (Personality trait)

Kirkus

Adventures across a massive war and pandemic make for a tidy tribute to common understanding.

Publishers Weekly

Nielsen (Words on Fire) presents a history of WWI from the perspectives of five young people--each representing an empire of that era--whose stories slowly converge. Opening with Austro-Hungarian Felix Baum, a Jewish 12-year-old who witnesses the June 1914 assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, the novel quickly introduces 11-year-old Elsa Dressler, daughter of a German major, and continues with the experiences of Kara Webb, a British nurse's daughter working with her mother on a Red Cross ambulance train. Kara eventually crosses paths with Juliette Caron, a French girl separated from her family, who hopes to get her father released from prison. When Juliette finds wounded Russian Dimitri Petrenko, 14, she tends to his injuries until he can return to his company. The engrossing plot abounds with necessary, if just-credible, coincidences that build connections between the five as they live through battles, bombings, and occupations--each one growing in courage and compassion while maturing over four years of wartime. All characters cue as white. An author's note contextualizes WWI's beginnings. Ages 8-12. Agent: Ammi-Joan Paquette, Erin Murphy Literary. (May)

Copyright 2022 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.
Jennifer A Nielsen
Jennifer A. Nielsen is the acclaimed author of the New York Times and USA Today bestselling Ascendance Series: The False Prince, The Runaway King, The Shadow Throne, The Captive Kingdom, and The Shattered Castle. She also wrote the New York Times bestseller The Traitor's Game and its sequels, The Deceiver's Heart, and The Warrior's Curse; the New York Times bestselling Mark of the Thief trilogy: Mark of the Thief, Rise of the Wolf, and Wrath of the Storm; the standalone fantasy The Scourge; and the critically acclaimed historical thrillers A Night Divided, Resistance, Words on Fire, Rescue, Lines of Courage, Iceberg, and Uprising. Jennifer collects old books, loves good theater, and thinks that a quiet afternoon in the mountains makes for a nearly perfect moment. She lives in northern Utah with her family, and is probably sneaking in a bite of dark chocolate right now. You can visit her online at jennielsen.com or follow her on Twitter and Instagram at @nielsenwrite
More books like this