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Summary
Summary
It's 1944, and ten-year-old Janet Baylor is leaving India with her family to return to the United States after living abroad for seven years. Onboard a troopship, dubbed the U.S.S. You-Know-Who, their perilous journey is filled with excitement and mystery. Because the ship is passing through enemy waters, it must travel incognito and zigzag to avoid torpedoes. As Janet and her brothers explore the ship, the ever curious Janet finds there are secrets to be discovered; she wants to know why the beautiful Ann Dobson is fleeing India and why the Eurasian boy Lee is so mysterious about his past. And when the Baylors finally arrive in America, Janet is amazed by the strangeness of it all as she gets ready to begin her new life.
Reviews (3)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 5-8In 1944, an American missionary doctor and his family head home from India on a disguised U.S. naval ship. The treacherous voyage is related by his 10-year-old daughter, Janet. She describes events happening within her own family, which includes her parents and two brothers, Kevin, 16, and Hugh, 12; the dangers they face; their reliance on God and prayer; and their affection for one another. All of them have their own problems, including Janet, who is anxious about returning to the United States. However, the secrets of the other passengers intrigue her more; there's a mysterious Chinese boy (who turns out to be a girl fleeing a sexually abusive father) and an aristocratic-looking woman who is not what she seems. The book contains just the right amount of suspense and emotion. Janet is a refreshingly practical and blunt girl. Characters are well developed and exhibit human weaknesses. The narrative is smooth and believable (in part perhaps because the author experienced a similar voyage). This fine first novel has something for everyone: history, drama, adventure, and realism.Margaret B. Rafferty, Gwinnett-Forsyth Regional Library, GA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Manley's intermittently interesting, semiautobiographical first novel, about an American family's ocean voyage from India to California during WWII, suffers from double vision. The reader is invited to examine the events through the eyes of 10-year-old Janet Baylor, usually the first-person narrator; frequently, however, the narrator seems to be an adult, looking back at a distant past and using phrases like ``in those days'' to fix the time. This conflation of the narrator's roles proves distancing, and the plot itself resembles that of a '40s wartime movie (passengers in disguise; small tests of moral courage). However, the author serves up a wealth of atmospheric details-the blackout conditions aboard the ship (``You must NEVER throw anything overboard... not even a cigarette butt''), the drills (``The General Quarters alarm was a piercing KOO-EEE-YOO! like a giant prehistoric bird in pain''); descriptions of the American food so new to Janet-and the strength of her prose raises expectations for future works. Ages 10-14. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Booklist Review
Gr. 7-10. In a strongly autobiographical World War II novel, 10-year-old Janet describes her voyage on a U.S. troopship to California from India with her medical missionary parents and her two older brothers. She has spent most of her life in the Himalayas; now she's told that America is home. The long journey across the Indian and Pacific Oceans is hazardous, but the story is not so much about enemy submarines and torpedoes as it is about the people on the ship. There's a bit too much leisurely detail in the first half of the book, but suspense slowly builds around some of the passengers and their secrets, especially the mysterious woman who turns out to be a German refugee. Janet's family is beautifully individualized, the hurt between them as well as the love. Her parents' religion is a source of strength--prayers and psalms are part of daily life--but Janet also sees their vulnerability and their limitations, as she worries about going "home" and becoming a "real American." --Hazel Rochman