Tag: 5 star review

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Keeper of Lost Children by Sadeqa Johnson

Robin’s Rave Reviews 2026

5 Stars

KEEPER OF LOST CHILDREN by Sadeqa Johnson will give you all the feels.  This WWII historical fiction covers a mix of topics from family drama, prejudice/desegregation, adoption, infertility, army wife life, and the haves/have nots.</span> Sadeqa expertly immerses you into the world of several characters from the late 1940s in Occupied Germany to the mid-1960s in America. The three storylines are easy to follow without confusion as you weave in and out of them.

Book Summary

Ethel Gathers lives in Occupied Germany on an American Army base in the 1950s. She struggles with the emotional pain of infertility and loneliness as a military wife in a foreign country. When she gets lost walking around the city, she stumbles upon a local orphanage. The children here are babies of German women and Black American GI’s. German society shunned these single mothers due to their bi-racial children, and the women cannot financially care for them. Ethel’s purpose in life becomes finding these children loving homes in America, and her “Brown Babies Program” is born.

Ozzie Phillips, born and raised in Philadelphia, volunteers for the Army in 1948. He wants to show what the Black man is capable of in the newly desegregated Army. While serving in Germany, he forms a relationship with Jelka, a local woman, and they have a child together. He loves this child more than anything, but the military upends their arrangement with orders he must follow.

In the mid-1960s, Sophia Clark’s high test score gains her an opportunity to be part of desegregating a prestigious all-white boarding school in Maryland. It’s an opportunity for a better education to overcome a life of poverty, as well as escaping tough life on the farm and her cold, demanding parents. At the new school, she struggles with both class and race issues. Sophia makes friends with other students who, like her, are breaking down walls. One of these friendships leads her to uncovering truths about herself and her family.

My Thoughts 

Reader, you will love these characters. You will sympathize with Ethel’s desperate desire to be a mother and attempts at adjusting to life on the Army base so far from home. You will love Ethel’s heart in finding Black American families who want these children and her persistence in breaking through the red tape to get them from Germany to America. Author notes that will be in the published version weren’t included in my Advance Readers Copy (ARC). I expect Sadeqa will talk about her research on these children and the woman who arranged the adoptions.  Some quick research points to Ethel’s character being based on a real-life woman, Mabel Grammer. She was responsible for successfully relocating over 500 children in her “Brown Baby Program.”

We meet Ozzie in Philadelphia before he joins the military. You will connect with his personality and goals. You will feel for the sacrifice he makes to join the Army. Once there, hIs story sheds light on what it was like for a Black man to have his ability overlooked by the military simply because of his skin color.  You’ll applaud his drive to improve his position and prove himself. You’ll appreciate his tender side in his relationship with Jelka, a German woman, and the child they have together. The devotion this man has for his child is adorable which makes your heart break for his circumstances. You will cheer on Ozzie and Jelka to overcome the problems associated with the demands of the Army and societal bigotry.

Jumping forward in time, your heart will go out to Sophia, a sweet, smart girl living in poverty with unloving parents. As much as you’ll want to see her get out by going to this prestigious school, you’ll feel her stress at leaving her brothers behind in those conditions. You will feel concern knowing the probable issues she will face being one of the first Black students at an all-white school with children from wealthy families. You will tense as she encounters prejudice, and you’ll recognize typical teenage scenarios with friendship and first love.

Although you will predict how the three stories will eventually tie in, you will be invested in seeing it all play out.

5 Star Recommendation

I have seen excellent reviews of other Sadeqa Johnson novels (THE HOUSE OF EVE and YELLOW WIFE), but this is my first book by her. When I saw the ARC was available, I jumped at the chance to read it. I’m so glad I did. I highly recommend KEEPER OF LOST CHILDREN by Sadeqa Johnson. It is well written, the characters are endearing, and the story was an excellent lesson of WWII history I didn’t know about. 

The book comes out February 10, 2026.  You can preorder it now . Here’s a link to purchase at Bookshop.org. My thanks to Simon and Schuster and NetGalley for the ARC of KEEPER OF LOST CHILDREN by Sadeqa Johnson. All of my thoughts on this novel are my own opinions.

About the Author

From Sadeqa Johnson’s website: Sadeqa is the author of six novels. The House of Eve was an instant New York Times Best Seller, Reese’s Book Club selection, Target Book Club pick, nominated for a NAACP Image Award and a 2023 Goodreads Choice award finalist.

Yellow Wife, was named by Oprah Magazine as “27 of 2021 Most Anticipated Winter Historical Fiction books.” Yellow Wife was also a 2021 Goodreads Choice Award finalist for historical fiction, a 2022 Hurston/Wright Foundation Legacy finalist, a BCALA Literary Honoree, the Library of Virginia’s Literary People’s Choice Award winner, and a Barnes & Noble book club pick in paperback.

The book tour dates and locations for KEEPER OF LOST CHILDREN is on her website here. I plan on meeting her in February when she comes to the South Euclid-Lyndhurst branch of the Cuyahoga County Library (Cleveland area) on her book tour.  Does your book club plans on reading her newest book? Keep an eye on her website for book club extras.

If You Like…

If KEEPER OF LOST CHILDREN sounds interesting to you, take a look at these past reviews I’ve done. Click on the links. Maybe one of these books will also piqué your interest: THE BOOK OF LOST NAMES or THE PARIS DAUGHTER by Kristin Harmel, THE SECRET BOOK OF FLORA LEA by Patti Callahan Henry, and THE CLOCKMAKER’S WIFE by Daisy Wood.

 

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The Ways We Hide

Robin’s Rave Reviews 20225 Stars

 

A five-star read! If you think you’re tired of reading WWII historical fiction, The Ways We Hide by Kristina McMorris will change your mind.

Photo of author Kristina McMorris with Robin Shelley at author talk.
Author Kristina McMorris with Robin Shelley at an author talk.

The Ways We Hide is one of the top two reads for me this year. McMorris’s novel takes a new approach to WWII historical fiction through the story of an American illusionist, a woman, teaming up with British intelligence. Yes, a woman illusionist in the 1940s! Fenna Vos is recruited by Christopher Hutton to work with MI9 to develop items that will help allied POWs escape their Nazi captors. (Hutton really was part of the British intelligence and inspired the idea for Q in the James Bond series.)

Photo of Kristina McMorris showing a silk map used in WWII to help allied POWs escape their Nazi captors.
McMorris shows a silk map used in WWII.

McMorris uncovered tidbits in her research that may surprise you. For example, when I saw her on her book tour at a Cuyahoga County Public Library, she showed a map made of silk. She explained that it could be smuggled into the camp with a map of the area. It solved the problem of the crinkling sound of a paper map giving away their location.  She also talked about board games, like Monopoly, that were altered before they were sent by fake charities to “entertain” the POWs. Currency of that country would be added into the stack of play money. Under the game board’s paper covering, the hardboard would be carved out to hold tools such as a compass or file to aid in escapes. Even playing cards were tools. See the video below to see how a deck of cards created a map of the area surrounding a POW camp.

The book has three main sections:

First, Fenna’s childhood experiences as a part of an immigrant mining family helps us understand who she is and what she values. Years before McMorris got the idea for this book, she came across the story of a 1913 Christmas Eve tragedy in Michigan’s Copper Country. A Christmas party, held on the second floor of the social hall, was organized for the children of striking miners. During the party, someone falsely shouted “fire.” The ensuing panic caused a stampede down the only stairwell out. Seventy-three people died, 59 of them children. The man who caused the panic was suspected to be an anti-union person, possibly in alliance with the mine management. McMorris kept this event tucked in the back of her mind, knowing she had to use it in a book. As she developed this novel, the story made perfect sense as a formative childhood experience for her main character, Fenna.

As a survivor of this tragedy, Fenna obsesses over escape techniques which leads to her career as an illusionist, the second part of the novel. Here we see her transition from entertainer to inventor, working with MI9.

Then, the combination of Fenna’s MI9 work and her connection to the immigrants of her Michigan childhood leads her to going into the field, the third part of the book. This mission, where she hopes to clear the name of a loved one, has her being airdropped behind enemy lines in Holland where her courage will be tested more than ever before.

 

From Kristina McMorris’s website:

Inspired by stunning true accounts, The Ways We Hide is a gripping story of love and loss, the wars we fight—on the battlefields and within ourselves—and the courage found in unexpected places.

 

A great place to order The Ways We Hide is Bookshop.org. Part of the proceeds of each purchase goes to support independent bookstores. You can even specify a bookstore to benefit from your purchase. Consider specifying MacIntosh Books on Sanibel Island, as they are recovering from Hurricane Ian. This is the link for The Ways We Hide if you’d like to support MacIntosh Books.

If you like this review, check out these!  The Wedding Veil by Kristy Woodson Harvey (my other favorite of 2022!) and these WWII books I’ve reviewed in past years by Kristin Harmel – The Book of Lost Names, The Winemaker’s Wife, and The Forest of Vanishing Stars.

Check out these clever WWII POW tools in the videos below.

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@author.robin.shelley

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The Book of Lost Names by Kristin Harmel

Ok readers, here’s another book you need to check out. The Book of Lost Names by Kristin Harmel is wonderful! Five stars! I didn’t know who Kristin Harmel was until a few months ago when I became part of the Friends and Fiction FB group. (See post from Aug. 4.) Listening to Kristin talk about her book got me hooked. I had to read it.

It’s historical fiction that takes place during WWII. But wait. If that turns you off, trust me. Keep reading. At first the WWII focus turned me off. I like historical fiction at times, but I’ve read a lot of HEAVY books about the war, extermination camps, etc. Don’t get me wrong. They are worth reading, but I have to be in the right mood and right time in my life to sit and read a book like that. Well, I was pleasantly surprised with The Book of Lost Names. It took place during the war and never diminished the seriousness of the circumstances, but it wasn’t the heavy reading I was expecting. I found it difficult to put the book down once I started.

Eva, a young Jewish woman, has to put her artistic abilities to work to fake documents. Her forgeries need to be realistic enough to get her and her mother out of Paris as the raids on Jewish people begin. Once they get to a small town at the base of the Alps, Eva feels safer. They should be able to cross over into Switzerland fairly easily. However, while in the town, she gets involved in a forgery ring helping make documents to get others out of dangerous zones and across to Switzerland.

“The danger is real, but the book illuminates valor and goodness in the human heart instead of focusing on evil and darkness.”

 

Instead of depressing, this book is intriguing. It is so interesting to learn about regular people working in the Underground to help Jews, adults and children alike. As Jewish children, often separated from their families by the raids, are being helped safely across the border, the story is secretly, quietly triumphant. The danger is real, but the book illuminates valor and goodness in the human heart instead of focusing on evil and darkness.

As Eva creates documents, she has to change people’s names. As many of them are children, she is afraid they will be too young to remember their real names. She states that the Nazis want to erase her people, and she doesn’t want to be a part of erasing their history through the forgeries, even if she is saving lives. That’s why Eva uses a book to keep track of the children’s names in code. She calls it  The Book of Lost Names. She wants to ensure a way later for them to reconnect with who they were before the war. Decades after the war the book reemerges and only Eva can tell the story and crack the code. Although Eva is fictional, her character and her methods of forgery are based on real people and techniques. What a great story!

This book gets 5 stars from me. Leave me a comment if you’ve read it or plan to read it!

 

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