Barbara-Ann Gamboa Lewis, illustrated by Barbara Pollak,
Barefoot In Fire: A World War II Childhood
Tanahan Books for Young Readers, 2005.

Ages 9+

Barbara-Ann Gamboa Lewis’ childhood was full of love, adventure, nature, confusion, and learning: but growing up biracial in the Philippines during World War II meant that it was also marked by poverty, hunger, and stress.  Playfully illustrated in a cartoon style by Gamboa Lewis’ daughter-in-law, Barbara Pollak, Barefoot in Fire explores the magic and wonder of childhood without shrinking from the particular difficulties Gamboa Lewis experienced.

The eldest of three children, Gamboa Lewis was seven when war came.  Her family moved from Manila to the countryside where the children, who weren’t formally schooled during the war, were free to climb trees and explore the fields, creeks, and hills of their new home while their parents were at work in the city. 

Barbara-Ann, known as Pooh to her family, and her father would take casual walks in the evenings, surreptitiously taking inventory of the Japanese camps to report to the guerrillas. When the Americans returned to liberate the Philippines, the family would retreat to a homemade shelter during air raids. From a hilltop in the countryside one night, Barbara-Ann watched Manila burn.

After the Japanese Army withdrew, the Gamboas made friends with American soldiers, including one who would lead Barbara-Ann’s mother, an Irish Canadian who had been disowned for marrying a Filipino, back to her estranged father and medical treatment in North America.  Throughout the war, Pooh’s mother and siblings’ health had weakened, and her father had become almost completely blind, making it impossible for her parents to find jobs.  Ironically, the Gamboa family suffered most after the war, enduring long hospital stays, standing in ration lines, and depending on the generosity of neighbors when they were forced from their home.

Gamboa Lewis makes it clear that there was great joy and love amidst the turmoil and that, while life is very different now in the Philippines and elsewhere, becoming irritated with one’s parents, confused about one’s feelings, outraged at injustice, and remorseful at having done something wrong, are part of anyone’s experience past the age of seven.  Delighting in discovery, learning, playing, and tasting chocolate are also experiences known to children 50 years ago in wartime and in comfortable homes across the world today.  It is the author’s hope that young readers will find the familiar in her story; it is certain that it will be enjoyed by any child who likes adventure, history and smart, spunky heroines.

Abigail Sawyer
September 2009