Jean Booker,
Keeping Secrets
Scholastic Canada, 1994, 2011.

Rating: G*

Bombs are falling on the English countryside as World War II rages! Ellen and her family live in Beeswing Yard, Morpeth in northern England in a development with six other families. Not only do they share coalhouse facilities, but they also share lavatories! They constantly fear air raids by German airplanes. When Ellen’s father is hurt in a Newcastle air attack, her mother leaves Ellen in the care of her neighbor Miss Diamond. Ellen is busy with school since she has just started high school on a scholarship; however, she is having real trouble with her arithmetic.

When a German plane crashes in a nearby field, Ellen and her friend Mavis are eager to explore the site. On her way home, Ellen discovers a parachute. Has one of the German pilots survived? While caring for a rabbit she has taken home from school, Ellen chases it into the lav and is confronted by the fugitive German pilot. He threatens to kill the rabbit if she doesn’t get him a coat and keep silent about it. He locks her in the coalhouse, but returns to free her when the air raid sirens start. After a German plane scores a direct hit on the coalhouse, Ellen and the pilot are trapped and desperately try to survive together. They pass the time waiting for rescue by working on Ellen’s arithmetic problems. Ellen comes to appreciate the German pilot as an individual who has a family and only wants to do the best for his country. When she is freed, she gets the chance to help the German who has saved her life.

Originally published in 1994 under the title Ellen’s Secrets, Jean Booker’s World War II novel about an encounter between an English high school girl and a fugitive German soldier was shortlisted for the Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction for Young People in 1995.

Young readers will be interested in the details of daily life in wartime England. Some readers may be challenged by unfamiliar vocabulary such as: "lav," "hinny," "gossoon," and "TTFN." However, Booker’s novel about an unusual wartime friendship still has a powerful message for readers today. Ellen learns that there is always another side to the story - even in times of war. The German soldier tells her, "I do what my Fuhrer says I must do." (p. 122) In the end, Ellen realizes that friendship and compassion are what really matter in life. "Ellen knew that someday it would be over - people couldn’t stay mad with each other for ever." (p. 155)

Myra Junyk
Vol. 16, number 4
April 2011

*Rating System:
E - Excellent, enduring, everyone should see it!
G - Good, even great at times, generally useful!
A - Average, all right, has its applications.
P - Problematic, puzzling, poorly presented.