I am a sucker for kids stories that feature labor organizing and a strong message against fascism. ( )

This book has an engaging story and main character. Most of the characters are well drawn and three dimensional. I can think of only one exception and that is a villainous character and the reader is not shown another (better) side to them.

One quibble: someone who’s always had poor eyesight would not describe things as looking blurry. To them things would just be the way things looked and would seem normal if they’d never had corrective lenses or know that they needed them.

This author writes really well done young characters.

I think I got a fine feel for 1941 small town Maine.

The story does tackle some extremely serious issues and they’re not dumbed down but somehow they are presented in a way appropriate for young readers.

I was surprised at how much work/chores all the kids had to do and how little time they had for reading and recreation of various sorts, although they did have some time for pleasurable pursuits.

Some quotes that I liked:

“When the storm is coming, we must quickly find out who we are: who we are in the light of trouble.”

“Fear is such a strange thing. Fear hides in crevices in our brain, just waiting for a chance someday to leap up and grab us and make us want to leave our skins and run away.”

“She couldn’t help feeling that she had just narrowly dodged becoming a much worse sort of person than she wanted to be.”

“Some part of Gusta’s drowned and damaged heart mended a little at that moment. It makes a difference, having a friend willing to come into danger with you, just so you don’t have to be all alone. Her father used to use a big word for it: solidarity.”

“…made her heart tear into messy little pieces.”

4-1/2 stars

A friend pointed out that this author also wrote Cloud and Wallfish, another 4-1/2 star book I really liked. I liked this book even better than that one.

I was incredibly touched by these characters and this story. At times it was like a punch to the gut. It was when I got to the author’s note that I realized why everything felt so emotional and so real. The main character Gusta and her story were heavily based on the author’s mother’s childhood. The Acknowledgments section also revealed the author’s connection with Maine and family from a young age. ( )

Incredibly culturally relevant to today's world, this tale of America in the days before our entry into World War II is an entertaining, frustrating, and emotionally filling read. Gusta's descriptions about the world before and after she gets her glasses are particularly fine pieces of writing for Nesbet - it is so very easy to see through Gusta's eyes. There are tough topics at play here, but all handled very gently for middle grade readers. A wonderful new book! ( )

See my full review over on Reading Rumpus: https://www.readingrumpus.com/2018/06/the-orphan-band-of-springdale-by-anne.html

1941 is a rough year for Gusta Neubronner’s family. Her mother’s new boarding house doesn’t allow children and her father is on the lam, wanted by the government for union organizing. So Gusta is sent from New York City to stay with her grandmother and aunt, who run a home for orphans in inland Maine. With nothing but a few changes of clothes and the French horn her father taught her to play, Gusta still manages to cause some trouble. She attends school in the small town with her nearby cousin Bess and other colorful characters, gets eyeglasses and a job from a man who trains carrier pigeons, advocates for a union at the local mill, and starts a band.

This book started out a little rough – we only spend a page or two in Gusta’s head before she gets separated from her father, and then are almost immediately thrown into several (at this point very confusing) flashbacks and nested stories. But a few chapters in the story evens out to a very touching tale. Based mostly on the life of the author’s mother, all the parts that seem heavy-handed are of course the truest. The attitude of the U.S. government (especially as viewed through the propaganda presented via school) toward the very people that the Nazis were targeting (Jews and anti-fascists) is depressingly relevant. Gusta is just a kid and wants the best for everyone, but lives in fear because of her last name and lack of birth certificate.

It’s a sweet historical kids story playing a heavier (more realistic) hand of politics than you usually see, but I appreciated it. ( )