Grace Banker and Her Hello Girls Answer the Call: The Heroic Story of WWI Telephone Operators by Claudia Friddell (review)

Friddell, Claudia Grace Banker and Her Hello Girls Answer the Call: The Heroic Story of WWI Telephone Operators; illus. by Elizabeth Baddeley and with photographs. Calkins Creek, 2021 [40p] Trade ed. ISBN 9781684373505 $18.99 E-book ed. ISBN 9781635923711 $11.99 Reviewed from digital galleys R Gr. 2-5

America entered World War I and recruitment kicked into high gear not just for soldiers but also for overseas support services, including communication workers. Grace Banker, a twenty-five-year-old switchboard operator and trainer with a college degree and fluency in French, was an easy pick, and soon after her application to the Signal Corps was accepted she was appointed chief operator at General Pershing's First Army Headquarters in France. As the front moved, so did General Pershing, and as Pershing moved, so did Banker and her operators (nicknamed Hello Girls), connecting hundreds of daily combat commands while dodging shrapnel or glued to their posts in a burning wooden office. After the war Banker was awarded a Distinguished Service medal, and she and her "girls"—recruited, uniformed, and trained by the military—were sent home as civilians, not veterans. Baddeley's mixedmedia scenes are packed with visual references to homefront hype as well as to the perils of life for these women adventurers at the edge of the fighting. End matter is well worth exploring, with a finely tuned timeline, photographs, bibliography, and extra information ranging from the long road toward recognition for the operators' military service to how a switchboard worked. This picture book should hold strong appeal for both independent readers and middle grade listeners, making it an excellent selection for curricular use.