Life in Winnie’s 1918 small town outside of Galveston, Texas is just fine by her but a place her best friend, Tillie, wants to leave, eventually, to become a Hollywood movie star. Then things take a turn and the influeza pandemic has spread from the soldiers coming back from the Great War over there to Winnie's town, Coward Creek, Texas, over here. Since Winnie's mother is emotionally unstable and her bossy grandmother is more interested in being accepted by the social elite, Winnie takes charge to protect her family. Winnie even goes with her sweetheart to break into the general store to steal Vicks VaporRub, which is supposed to prevent the flu, according to its advertisements. When Winnie learns about her mother's past she also learns she and her grandmother are more alike than she dreamed possible, in that they are take-charge people in a town called Coward. Winnie also learns about hope, despite the realities of death that surround her. Although this book is putatively about the great influenza epidemic that swept America and Europe during and after World War I, it is in fact a tale of growing up after the turn of the century in a small town. Winnie is an unusually thoughtful 12-year-old girl growing up in the Texas town of Coward Creek (great name), who inevitably has issues with her parents (particularly her remote mother), her grandmother, her best friend, and various other townspeople. In the course of the book, as the flu threatens those around her, Winnie frets about the danger, uncovers secrets from the past, receives her first kiss (through a handmade burlap mask), tends her sick family, experiences grief, and comes to terms with her life in a way that is realistic, touching and tender. Echoes of To kill a Mockingbird and a Northern light float into mind. The book deliberately stays away from screeching drama, preferring to focus on the growth of one person during a particularly difficult summer. It is a beautifully rendered portrait of a small town where you can imagine the dry Texas streets, the little cemetery, the smell of the woods, the chickens clucking in the back yard. Winnie's grandmother has social aspirations, and one of the scenes involves a tea party she throws to beg acceptance into a ladies' club -- you can visualize the desperate gentility of the old china on the scrubbed tabletops, the fresh baked lemon cookies that the kids are not allowed to eat because they're only for guests. A mood poem that captures a precarious moment in a time and place gone by.
Do You like book Winnie's War (2009)?
Great middle grade novel about the flue pandemic of 1918. Takes place in the Galveston, TX area.
—Evita
I loved this historical fiction. Winnie was a vibrant, plucky girl in a desperate time.
—samijoy
Awesome book!! Enjoyed it!! Really makes you be thankful for what you have.....
—water
Nicely textured book that capture a place near and dear to my heart.
—leahbelle
