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  • Stay Where You Are & Then Leave by John Boyne
  • Amy Atkinson
Boyne, John. Stay Where You Are & Then Leave; illus. by Oliver Jeffers. Holt, 2014. [256p]. ISBN 978-1-62779-031-4 $16.99 Reviewed from galleys    R Gr. 4–6.

Europe is deep in World War I, and life has changed drastically for nine-year old Alfie Summers and his neighbors on Damley Road. Only five when his father shipped out, Alfie now works as a shoeshine boy at London’s King’s Cross Station, surreptitiously slipping money into his mother’s change purse. When happenstance brings a doctor to Alfie’s shoeshine stand and the doctor’s records go flying, Alfie learns that his father is not on a secret mission, as his mother claimed, but is confined to a hospital north of London. Bent on bringing him home and restoring their happy family of three, Alfie concocts a plan to sneak his father out of the hospital, but he doesn’t realize the extent of his father’s shellshock and its implications for their [End Page 397] life together. Boyne takes on the war to end all wars with a sure but gentle touch, surrounding the believable and endearing Alfie with compelling side characters, especially his father’s best friend, conscientious objector Joe Patience. Through Joe and other figures Alfie encounters, Boyne touches on important aspects of the war and its effects on the homefront: anger and violence toward “conchies” (and the public shaming of any young man not in uniform through the presentation of a white feather); the social alienation and government internment of foreign-born citizens suddenly considered suspicious; lack of food and even modest comforts; and the nascent psychological study of post-traumatic stress. As much about familial love as about war, this novel tugs at the heartstrings, creating a sentimental but sound story that would shine as a classroom readaloud.

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