Thinking she'd be safer in Arizona with her grandparents, Anna goes to Arizona during the war. But it isn't the Arizona she remembers. War is here too. Take a journey through WWII from the perspective of a ranching community. I enjoyed watching Anna make independent decisions during hard times. Great learning example for young readers.

Rounding up a star for the fond vintage mystery feel and unique setting for a WW2 novel ;)

Well done to Catherine L. Osornio for such a well rounded and clean WW2 book for young people! *clap clap clap* I was fairly impressed by the balance and plotting. The back and forth between conversations with historical and social details woven in and the the fictional mystery were balanced and fit in. All the bones of a classic mystery book, perfect for youth who like a good historical fiction mystery yarn.


15 year old Anna (of whom I would have appreciated seeingmore characer depth of and intor to her inner world from the start but alas) is on the train to her grandfather's cattle ranch in Arizona, while her parents are overrun with war effort work. But, as an older lady on the train tells her, Wilder (the town) has not escaped the influence of the war. We're about to find out how!...

SABOTAGE. PREJUDICE. RACISM. FRAMING.

My favourite character was Mr Otomo, perhaps because he is the character facing injustice and one whom we are fighting for! Kind gestures between Anna and Mr Otomo make readers care about their relationship, though, like with all the relationships in the book, it is not delved in too far. But considering the age range this may be a nice tale for when a young person is more in the mood for some historical insight and classic feel adventure than deep dynamics and emotions.

We get war effort in a small Arizona town (with mountains!), big farm kitchens and cattle hand meals, soda bar, a church go-to(note: somehow God is never mentioned though church and saying grace/being thankful is), horse riding in the hills, and a girl determined to prove her friend innocent and track down the real saboteur. She makes some rash decisions, but phew, thank goodness for Johnny and Travis!

Reccomended to young people who lap up historical mysteries, even if there was some room for some character development. The themes were important, such as staying true to your friends, the whole deal of false acusaions and rasism bias, and how we can't just go and acuse someone on a whim even if they hurt someone we love/ are acting weird. Then we'd be doing the same thing XD Would work as a great conversation starter to anyone interested in these topics and moral deilemmas.

Age range: 12-14
There is some dangerous activity from Anna as we have the whole classic sneak to the potential villian's layer on your own thing ;) Nothing was done in a scary way, though some serious siduations, but to be honest the tone was a little flippant/caual for my taste here. And, spoiler, it all works out well :) Though som eintense moments there should be no nightmare fuel at all.

To close, this was a highly polished book, but perhaps too polished in that it could do with a lot more grounding detail. For example, characters being allowed visual descriptions and desire/fear/misbelief or other such fitting technique. However, readers from the ages of 12 to 15 will still get a kick out of the adventure and perfectly slotted-in light history discussions, and even the adult looking for a light light read with a cool settting and old school mystery feel. Loved that part about it! :)

Hats off to Netgalley and the Jolly Fish Press for offering this ARC copy. Of course, theses are all my own opnions and experiances.

✨What I would say if I was alpha/beta reading, and please take with some salt as I read an ARC copy and some minor changes may be made:

✨What I would say if I was alpha/beta reading:
✨Anna seems sweet, but we don't ge to know any of her fears/dreams/ internal struggles at the begining. We really only get to see Anna reacting to a bunch of events. Perhaps a wee detail to where she is emotionally (and perhpas a little thought about her fear of snakes/how she hopes there are none on her grandfather's ranch) could be introduced at the start.
✨Fleshing out the side characters too! Take some time. Lots of characters are intoduced, esp. at the start, which I had a hard time keeping up with. There were a lot of middle aged men, and there where no visual descriptions at all!
✨A few tone changes were really sudden, and it all got really neat immediately. Perhaps this could be woven more thought provokingly.
✨ But some transiton details, adapting (I know she has been before, but its been a while), and maybe some comparisons would have been cool. Otherwise it's like Anna is dropped into the plot world just for the story session. Cool plot, cool, setting, I just would have loved MORE of it all :D

Shout out one last time to this being set in a small Arizona town (that still has a soda bar), I loved that.

A cool mystery read (even if you aren't into mysteries) that will be pounced on by fans of The YOUng Underground Robert Elmber, Freedom Seekers/Adventures in the Northwoods byLois Walfid Johnson, and espcially The Candle Star by Michele Isenhoff, though this book has less content and character devolpment than all three. Great intro to WW2 topics, with a horsey farm hand touch. Y'haw!

This short World War II novel is definitely a nice heartwarming story if you are looking for something that is a quick and easy read. Despite the short lengh it has a enough adventure throughout the story to keep you hooked. I was overall very impressed with it.
Anna is our main character of focus in this novel. Her parents who are concerned about the safety of California during the war decide to send her to her grandfather's farm in Arizona. She manages to make some really good friends and manages to find a job to help out with the war effort. However despite the friendliness of the town there are rumors that there are Nazi spies occupying the area and soon people are pointing the finger at each other. Will Anna be able to get to the bottom of this mystery without getting caught.
I received an arc copy from Netgalley and all opinions are of my own.

A WWII story in Arizona, in a town that was helping with the war and doing training. It has good characters and an enjoyable story.

I was given an ARC to give an honest review. These are my words and opinion

This is a very good book! There is a lot of history about things that were going on in America during the war. I liked nearly all the characters, some of them were just so sweet! The mystery that was taking place was very well done. I liked how it didn't shy away from hard subjects, yet they were handled very well. Nothing bad that I can remember. This is definitely a book I could hand a sibling or recommend to anyone without worries.