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A Novel
by Leah WeissA Southern story of friendship forged by books and bees, when the timeless troubles of growing up meet the murky shadows of World War II.
Deep in the tobacco land of North Carolina, nothing's been the same since the boys shipped off to war and worry took their place. Thirteen-year-old Lucy Brown is precocious and itching for adventure. Then Allie Bert Tucker wanders into town, an outcast with a puzzling past, and Lucy figures the two of them can solve any curious crime they find―just like her hero, Nancy Drew.
Their chance comes when a man goes missing, a woman stops speaking, and an eccentric gives the girls a mystery to solve that takes them beyond the ordinary. Their quiet town, seasoned with honeybees and sweet tea, becomes home to a Nazi prisoner-of-war camp. More men go missing. And together, the girls embark on a journey to discover if we ever really know who the enemy is.
Lush with Southern atmosphere, All The Little Hopes is the story of two girls growing up as war creeps closer, blurring the difference between what's right, what's wrong, and what we know to be true.
Paperback original
Prologue
LUCY
We are an innocent lot, my two brothers, four sisters, and me, born on as ordinary a land as God ever made. Our tobacco farm in Riverton, North Carolina, is far from Oma's soaring mountains in the Black Forest of Germany, where tall trees dim the light of day and the tales of the Brothers Grimm grow out of the loamy soil. Where even a polished apple holds peril. Her stories raise the hairs on the backs of our necks, and fear prickles and chills our skin. Telling tales is Oma's best talent.
After, when prayers are said and we're tucked in our featherbed, and the house turns still as stone, I lie between Cora and Lydia, and we remember and clutch hands until our grips soften, safe in this place, for our grandmother's stories live far across the sea.
But they are real.
Because of the wolpertinger.
Oma's grandfather came upon the creature in 1881 while hunting, and he preserved it for all time. It is seventeen and a quarter inches long and is equal part rabbit, roebuck...
How did you feel as you read about conditions in the internment camps? Prior to reading this book, were you aware of the internment of German- and Italian-Americans during WWII?
The only reason I knew about the Germans being interned in US prison camps was because a dear friend and colleague of my husband was interned as a child with his family on the Greenbriar grounds. His father was a German diplomat to the US and they were caught up in the insanity. Also, I recall me...
-Gabi_J
Here are some of the comments posted about All the Little Hopes in our legacy forum.
You can see the full discussion here.
Bert tends to blame herself when things go wrong. Why do you think that is? Is it more of a female trait? Are there things you blame yourself for that really aren't your fault?
Are there things you blame yourself for that really aren't your fault?
Oh my. I have many times that I feel guilt, or wonder if I may have caused something to be the way it is. Possibly it's the fact of my ... - Suzanne
Describe the relationship between the Riverton community and the German POWs. What effect does Terrell Stucky have on the reputation of the POWs? How do the Germans come to be an accepted part of the town?
This was a special part of the story for me. It was something I wasn't aware of before and I felt it celebrated finding humanity in others. - ssh
Describe the role of the Browns in their community. What are the broad effects of being a bibliophile?
I agree with everything Gavi said. The benefits of being a bibliophile are beyond listing. The love of reading was instilled in me by my mother when I was very young. It is a gift I could never repay nor put a value on - irisf
Did anybody else know immediately what the ouija board’s answers meant?
In reading the responses to my original question, I agree with Bill and Jackie that even if we knew what the answer was, it really was the girls' mystery to solve. Good call. - jamiek
Did Lucy, Bert, and Irene do the right thing when they found Tiny Junior's souvenirs?
Yes, there was nothing to be gained by destroying Tiny Juniors reputation. - rco
The novel shimmers with the vivid voices of its two narrators, Lucy and Bert. The girls are different enough to offer two unique perspectives of everything that unfolds in Riverton, but similar in the important ways that foster a flourishing friendship. Readers might easily identify with Lucy, the bookworm who wishes more than anything that Nancy Drew was real, or tomboyish Bert who struggles with guilt related to her mother's death and later falls easily under the spell of a touring musician lothario. Both characters are charming and well-developed, and both will appeal to those with fond memories of encountering Scout from To Kill a Mockingbird for the first time...continued
Full Review (651 words)
(Reviewed by Lisa Butts).
In Leah Weiss's All the Little Hopes, the Brown family's North Carolina farm receives an influx of laborers in the form of captured German soldiers sent from the nearby prisoner-of-war (POW) camp. Some readers may be surprised to learn that there were many such camps in the United States during World War II, and that it was not uncommon for these men to be put to work just as Weiss describes.
According to Smithsonian Magazine, more than 400,000 prisoners captured from the armies of the Axis powers (Germany, Japan and Italy) by the Americans and British came to the United States to be detained in POW camps from 1942-1945. There were 155 base camps and 511 smaller branch camps located in 46 of the 48 states, though most were ...
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