This is a dry and unemotional account of a female SOE agent.

Told in her own words you can hear the stiff upper lip and the way that people of that period try to make everything that they did sound so "matter of fact".

Whilst you feel Pearl is not telling the whole story here, this eyewitness account of the SOE is an important work and is worth reading with She Landed By Moonlight. ( )

4P, 4Q (my VOYA codes). I found this book to be an easy read with easily understandable language, thus I think a 4 in quality is fitting as well as many people who enjoy reading non-fiction works, works about women who are empowered, and war novels will be intrigued by this book, so I gave it a 4 for popularity.

I found this YA non-fiction book by browsing YALSA's "Teens’ Top Ten: Nonfiction Picks for Fans of Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein" website. This book is about a female resistance fighter in Occupied France during WWII who tried to overcome stigmas and stereotypes of the time that women can't be a part of the war efforts - and who was eventually awarded her wings for being a jumper during the war - and for all her heroic efforts. I found the book to be a very interesting read, though the language seemed a bit childish at times and I found the story to be a little jarring when the author translated terms in the book that were very British - such as "lorries" and "baby powder." But in comparing the work to Tomlinson & Lynch-Brown's criteria for a non-fiction work, Code Name Pauline was found to be very accurate, especially with the translations of words that normally wouldn't be known by an American audience.

The work also fit Tomlinson & Lynch-Brown's idea that "facts must be accurate and current" as well as "must be attractive to young people." As an avid reader of Anne Frank's Diary and many other WWII books, I really enjoyed seeing the war from the perspective of someone who was living in France at the time that they were invaded by Germany, who was originally from England, and who fled with her family from France to Spain, only to join the resistance movement and return to France to drive the Germans out of the area. Much of the story told by Pearl matched up to other accounts of the war I have read, but she was also able to add her own twist to things, from the first-person accounts of what took place in farmhouses and under parachutes.

The Chicago Review Press reviewed Code Name Pauline and found it to be a "treasure-trove of primary source material" as well as "a piece of neglected World War II history." I agree with all of the reviews on this book. I found it to be an inspiring tale of what one woman did to help save people she didn't even know, against the Nazis, and the fact that she never gave up on herself even when others around her told her she couldn't make it as a Special Operations Executive. She did make it, she kept her word to the farmers that helped out the resistance and even made sure that the government reimbursed those farmers for their help once the war was over. Pearl was a true heroine and this book is a truly valuable piece of non-fiction writing and a piece of history. ( )

This memoir of a British spy who led segments of the French Resistance originated as a series of interviews conducted by French journalist Herve Larroque. As original source documentation, it provides great information for those intrigued by the resistance movements of World War II. As a Youth Services Librarian, I will be passing this on to fans of historical fiction as well as biography lovers. This book would be great paired with such books as Code Name Verity (Elizabeth Wein) and Tamar (Mal Peet). For a Young Adult biography of a courageous woman working with resistance fighters during World War I, I recommend Silent in an Evil Time : The brave war of Edith Cavell (Jack Batten). ( )

Reviewed professionally. ( )