Review of Lily's Crossing

1.  BIBLIOGRAPHY
Giff, Patricia Reilly. Lily's Crossing. New York: Delacorte Press, 1997. ISBN 0385321422

2.  PLOT SUMMARY
Lily and her grandmother travel to their summer cottage while Lily's father, an engineer, is headed overseas to help the Allies in World War II. Lily spends her holiday in what feels like the same quiet summer town she has always known while the rest of the world is in utter turmoil. 

3.  CRITICAL ANALYSIS
The year is 1944 and Lily is in fifth grade. She feels stifled by her traditional Catholic school upbringing and cannot wait until summer arrives. Every summer her family heads to Rockaway Beach on the Atlantic to her grandmother's summer home to enjoy ocean breezes, fishing and swimming. But this year is decidedly different for Lily. World War II has made her best friend's family relocate from Rockaway Beach to a war town. Her father, an engineer, is headed overseas to help the war effort, and Albert, a young refugee boy from Europe, moves in with her neighbors.

Giff says in her "Dear Reader" letter at the end of the book that Lily's summer town of Rockaway Beach was inspired by her own summers on the Atlantic. She captures the emotional effect of the war on the small town community, as people pull down blackout shades at night in case German pilots cross the Atlantic and attack America, the bakery hangs "Loose Lips Sink Ships" signs to discourage talking about possible tactical maneuvers, and even Lily feels the need to scold her mailman when he engages her in conversation about what her father might be working on overseas with the military.

With her father absent, and her mother deceased, Lily lives with her grandmother, who she has a love/hate relationship with. Lily has a hard time seeing her Gram as anything other than a disciplinarian. "Lily couldn't picture it, couldn't picture Gram skinny, and swimming all the way across Jamaica Bay... she had a braid to her waist, and she was a seal in the water" (47).

In the true tradition of the time, Lily focuses on simpler things in life. She plays outside all day, visits the library, sneaks into picture shows, and listens to the radio with her Grandmother. Giff portrays Lily accurately as a pre-teen girl, with her purse and lipstick, who hates to practice the piano, returns library books late, and buys day-old cookies at the bakery out of politeness to appease the owner's desperation over the lack of supplies, like butter and sugar, during war time to run her business.

But Lily also has a problem with lying. She recognizes it as a personality flaw, and also part of her affection for creative writing, but she cannot seem to keep her stories contained. Her lies to Albert about someday sneaking onto a boat headed to Europe to find her father inspire him to attempt to return to Europe to find the family he was forced to leave behind. After all, if Lily could do it, couldn't he? Her lies compel the story's climax and risks the life of her only friend, who has already lost so much.

Lily is a highly relatable little girl. Giff portrays her as being very self-aware of her flaws and, therefore, she is very easy for readers to identify with. Stuck between childhood and impending adolescence, Lily is looking for her place in a world that is ripping itself apart. Giff handles the hometown concerns of war with care and tenderness and without being too scary for middle grade readers.

4. REVIEW EXCERPT(S) and AWARDS
Newbery Honor Award, 1998
ALA Notable Children's Book, 1998
Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor Book

From School Library Journal
"History is brought to life through Giff's well-chosen details and descriptions...Giff's well-drawn believable characters and vivid prose style make this an excellent choice." 

From Publishers Weekly
"Exceptional characterizations and a robust story line turn this WWII homefront novel into far more than a period piece." 

5. CONNECTIONS
Other historical fiction books by Patricia Reilly Giff:

• Maggie's Door. ISBN 9780440415817
• Nora Ryan's Song. ISBN 9780440418290
• Water Street. ISBN 9780440419211

Other historical fiction books about World War II for children ages 10+:

• Farrell, Mary Cronk. Irena's Children: A Young Reader's Edition. ISBN 9781481449915
• Park, Linda Sue. When My Name Was Keoko. ISBN 9780547722399
• Wolk, Lauren. Wolf Hollow. ISBN 9781101994825

Oftentimes American children focus on their own country's influence on World War II, forgetting that it is a world war and that it affected children globally. Reading historical fiction can create a bridge based on empathy for children of other cultures who were also impacted by the war. In addition, helping children to see a scope of emotions outside of their own time can inspire thoughtfulness about where the world is headed and what kind of caring adult they may want to grow up to become. Though adults might not want to admit it, between age 10 and 12, children often get a real sense of how unsafe their world actually is. Fiction books about anxiety, fear, loss and personal growth can help children cope with those emotions as they are undoubtably what makes us human. How does one continue with life after they survive a Concentration Camp? How does one deal with being an orphan? How did all of this pain and separation of families start with hate for those who are different from ourselves, and what can be done to prevent such atrocity in the future? How can these stories be related to current world events?