A Time to Fight Back

Pettit (A Place to Hide: True Stories of Holocaust Rescues) falls short of the mark with profiles of eight children whose lives were altered by WWII. In her introduction, she writes that children ""waged their own battles against the forces of evil,"" then refers to Resistance couriers, teens who blew up bridges or smuggled food. Of her eight subjects, however, only two were actively engaged in struggles of this sort, and Pettit does not enlarge upon her definition of ""wartime resistance."" Describing a Jewish girl in Poland who survived in hiding, a British boy sent to safety in the U.S. and a Japanese American banished with her family to an internment camp, the author emphasizes their ordeals more than their responses. She does not help readers understand how, for example, a Scottish teen who kept a wartime diary or a German refugee rendered mute after the horrific bombing of Dresden can be thought of as ""fighting back."" Although she assembles an admirable range of subjects, she fails to link them in a way that drives home her theme. Ages 10-14. (Apr.)