My non-fiction book, CHILDREN'S WARTIME ADVENTURE NOVELS - The Silent Generation's Vicarious Experience of World War II -- is available for sale in a new venue which many of you have discovered as a great source for your online book purchases -- Bookshop.org.
In an age where many readers are, for one reason or another, trying to avoid shopping at Amazon or other large online shops, and yet don't have very good access to a local bookstore, there is another option...
Bookshop.org is "An online bookstore that financially supports local independent bookstores and gives back to the book community." A portion of your online purchase will be donated to a fund supporting independent booksellers, and you can even request that the portion donated from your purchase will go to a specific, favorite local bookstore. They also have a database on their site that will help you to find local independent bookstores in your area.
Available here online from Bookshop.org (Children’s Wartime Adventure Novels – hardcover - https://bookshop.org/a/116354/9798330314133
Children’s Wartime Adventure Novels – paperback - https://bookshop.org/a/116354/9798330314942)
Children's Wartime Adventure Novels received the following BookLife review in Publishers Weekly:
"Lynch illuminates a fascinating, little-studied chapter of publishing history in this study of exactly what the title suggests: World War II adventure novels for young American readers, printed during—and in a few cases before—U.S. involvement in the war itself, in which protagonists in their late teens and early 20s set aside the anxieties of youth to do their part to stomp out fascism. In title after title, pilots and soldiers (the men, mostly) and nurses, reporters, WACs, WASPS, WAVES, and more (the women) evince courage, endurance, dedication to the cause, and a savvy sense for identifying fifth columnists. Lynch celebrates the novels' sense of ‘spirited adventure’ and ethos of ‘patriotic self-sacrifice’ while digging into thorny questions of propaganda and indoctrination, including racial and ethnic stereotyping…
“Lynch writes with infectious enthusiasm for the subject, soaring through detailed summaries of the stories of dozens of books like Red Randall at Pearl Harbor, Nancy Blake, Copywriter, and the surprisingly grim nurse adventure Ann Bartlett at Bataan, which is frank about wartime surgery: ‘a tattered mass of flesh and bone.’ Especially engaging are Lynch's considerations of the differences between the novels with girl heroes—these stories of the "protectors of the homefront" sometimes boasted career advice and a ‘surprisingly feminist spark of independence and derring-do’—and the high-flying, battle-oriented novels starring boys…
“Late chapters surveying questions of patriotism and stereotypes across a host of books...offer continual revelations and insights, a rich contribution to the study of American literature and propaganda. These books deserve serious study. Takeaway: Fascinating study of WWII teen adventure novels and the American character.” BookLife review in Publishers Weekly (May 12, 2025)
The book also received reviews by Celeste Schantz at A Reader's Almanac YouTube vlog (starting at 12:00)
And Meg Perdue at Books Off the Beaten Path YouTube vlog -
It is also available in eBook here at Barnes & Noble, Apple, Kobo, and a wide variety of other online shops.
And it is here in eBook, paperback print, and hardcover, from Amazon.
It is also here in paperback from Ingram.
From Cherry Ames, to Meet the Malones, from Dave Dawson to Kitty Carter - Canteen Girl, the Silent Generation spent their childhood immersed in geopolitical events through the prism of their middle grade and young adult books. From the home front to the battlefield, these books are a window on their world, and influenced their hard-working, conformity-loving generation.
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