By: Lauren Wolk
Rate: good
Annabelle McBride is a twelve-year-old girl during World War II who lives on a farm with her parents, grandparents, Aunt Lily, and her younger brothers James and Henry. She at first is nervous around Toby, a World War I veteran, because he carries three guns around his back and uses her family’s precious camera, but slowly befriends him.
At her school, she meets Betty Glengarry, a local bully who is interested in provoking Annabelle. Annabelle tries to avoid her, but she believes Annabelle is rich and demands good items from her. She also dislikes Toby and says that all her tricks and pranks were done by him. Betty tries hitting Mr. Ansel, a German, but instead hits Annabelle’s friend, Ruth, and blames it on Toby, saying she and Andy (her boyfriend) were in the belfry. But Mrs. Taylor, Annabelle’s teacher, says that they couldn’t have been, for she had locked the belfry up, not allowing anyone in. Also, Betty and Andy, her friend, tie a sharpened wire across the path, and Annabelle’s brother James hurts his head on the wire.
Later, Toby goes missing and Annabelle is worried. Betty also is nowhere to be found. Aunt Lily suspects that Toby captured Betty, but Annabelle doesn’t believe it. She sneaks out at night and finds Toby at the smokehouse. She hides him in her barn and gives him food, water, and a book called Treasure Island (I’ve read that). Also, Annabelle suggests he cut his long hair and beard, making him unrecognized.
Annabelle believes that Betty is in the well at the smokehouse, for she thought she heard a porcupine there; it was actually her falling in. It turns out that Annabelle is right, and Toby, disguised as a man named Jordan, rescues her. Annabelle’s mother figures out he is Toby, and Aunt Lily, who was flirting with “Jordan”, is astonished.
Betty has an infection from the well, and she blames Toby for pushing her down. Actually, she fell down herself. When Betty dies from her infection, a lot of people believe her and go hunting for Toby, who has left Annabelle’s barn and is missing again. Then, he returns and says that he would like to have a daughter like Annabelle before vanishing for good. The next day news arrives that Tobias Jordan was shot and killed, and Annabelle believes that he wanted to be killed, for he left behind him the only gun that worked out of the three he always carried. I think this story is a satire for World War II, where Betty and her sidekick Andy were Hitler and his Nazis.
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