Rescue
Recommended Ages: 10-12
“Remember this always,” Albert said. “There is nothing so dark that light cannot find its way back.” His eyes turned to me. “There is nothing so lost that time cannot return it to us again” (173).
Jennifer Nielsen has done it again, another captivating WWII novel that will intrigue your reader until the very last line. Jennifer Nielsen is one of my go to authors for historical fiction, and I greatly appreciate that she has continued to write beautiful works of fiction with adventure, intrigue, and great messages for your adolescent readers.
Rescue, published in 2021, is a wonderful WWII novel set in occupied France. Meg’s father left two years to help the Allies and Resistance, but Meg isn’t sure what he is doing or where he is. She hasn’t heard from him in over two years. Living with her mother and grandmother in the Perche, Meg is doing what she can to help the Partisans and her family survive. What she didn’t know was that her mother was secretly doing the same.
Upon returning from her trip to town to sell food on the black market, Meg finds a downed British operative hiding in the barn. He has a coded message from her father that must be put in the hands of her mother only. Germans are searching near by, it isn’t safe, but the code is exchanged and given to Meg. The one person her father knew could break his message. However, in the rush of all things going on, Meg isn’t able to break the code all at once. Steadily throughout the novel she uncovers the meanings hidden in his message. The most critical being that she is not to trust one of the people she is leading to safety.
Central to the story is that the British agent is unable to complete his mission and tasks Meg with the responsibility to get three key people out of France, one of which holds the power to save her father. The story is Meg’s personal struggle to believe in herself, to trust others, and the courage to face her greatest fears.
Nielsen does a fantastic job weaving together this story that readers will surely be drawn into. I could not put it down. While a WWII novel, you will find mentions of people being killed or beaten, but there aren’t any gruesome details or descriptions. There also isn’t any profanity in this story. The one mention that might be a pause for some families is on page 153. Meg is recounting how others in the town had disappeared once the Germans arrived. “Others had disappeared too. A Roma family who’d lived in the forest. Even two men in our town, because it was rumored they were romantically involved.” As a matter of historical fact, we know that Hitler also targeted those who partook in homosexual relationships. Needless to say, depending on the age of your children, this may not be a notion you intend to introduce. This is the only mention of such things.
Aside from the suspense and intrigue of the novel, another aspect I really enjoyed was the internal struggle Meg had in helping the three individuals get to safety. These three were German citizens. There are so many great quotes for biblical worldview discussions and connections to scriptures. A few quotes/instances include:
Page 63: Jakob stopped to stare at me. “The Nazis are evil, not the Germans.”
I shrugged. “Is there a difference?”
Page 132-133: He stared over at me. “I didn’t think you’d be like this.”
“Like what?”
“The kind of person to believe everyone is the same, just because they come from the same place.”
Page 145: [Jakob is speaking] “You don’t understand, Meg. To get this far, we’ve had to leave everything behind—everything!...Does that sound like we’re free?”
[Albert responds]”We know who we are...who we were before. All we ask is that you look at us for who we are now trying to be.”
Page 173: “Remember this always,” Albert said. “There is nothing so dark that light cannot find its way back.” His eyes turned to me. “There is nothing so lost that time cannot return it to us again.”
Page 181: [Meg is looking at a drawing of Jewish people and a young Jewish couple walking by at the same time] That couple was no different than any of us, and I wondered how the other people here on the street couldn’t see that. Maybe if we just looked at one another, if we stopped hating and point fingers of blame, maybe then we could stand together against the true enemies of France.
Lastly, without spoiling the ending, I do appreciate that Nielsen ends such a difficult story based on historical tragedy in a positive way. I think it is encouraging for young readers to see an arc of hope in desperate times when all seems lost.
If you are a fan of historical fiction and/or WWII stories, I certainly encourage you to consider if Rescue by Jennifer A. Nielsen should be next on your to-read list.
