CCBC booklist are compiled from books we have recommended in various editions of CCBC Choices. Most of these booklists are updated annually. You can also select books from one or more booklists to create a custom list, which can also include additional books from the CCBC-Recommended Book Search.
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Jimmy's Stars
CCBC Review:
When eleven-year-old Ellie’s older brother Jimmy is drafted into World War II, she joins the ranks of those who wait and worry on the home front. Ellie has classmates, teachers, and neighbors with loved ones in the war, but are any of those soldiers as special as Jimmy? Can anyone understand how she feels? For Ellie, the answer to that question comes in fits and starts over the course of this complex and moving story that also brings details of neighborhood, school, and family life in 1943 into full relief. Mary Ann Rodman incorporates the best and the worst of those times into Ellie’s story, from the lively music and sense of common purpose to the racism revealed in the common use of the term “Japs.” For Ellie, Jimmy’s absence does more than upset the rhythm of her daily life; it also opens her eyes to things she never noticed before. As the people around her deal with uncertainty and fear, and as Ellie experiences unthinkable loss, she must come to terms with the way war changes things and find a way to move on. In doing so, she finds that looking to the future with hope, and even humor, is the best way to honor the memory of her spirited brother. ©2008 Cooperative Children's Book Center
CCBC Age Recommendation: Ages 10-14
Age Range:
Grades 3-5 (Ages 8-10)
Grades 6-8 (Ages 11-13)
Grades 9-12 (Age 14 and older)
Format:
Novel
Subjects:
20th Century
Brothers
Change
Grief and Loss
Historical Fiction
Soldiers/Military
U.S. History
World War II
On CCBC Booklist:
Military Families
Publisher:
Farrar Straus Giroux
Publish Year: 2008
Pages: 257
ISBN: 9780374337032
CCBC Location: Fiction, Rodman
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Please send questions or comments about CCBC booklists to ccbcinfo@education.wisc.edu.