One summer, Octavia and her older sister Talitha (Tali) reluctantly travel cross-country from California to a family reunion in Alabama with their stylish, 80-something grandmother, a " skinny-cigarette-smoking-fake-finger-nail-wearing" eccentric, who prefers to be called Mare, like the French word mère for mother. Mare also drives a red car and wears stilettos. The sisters are at first repulsed by Mare’s very frank tales of growing up in a tiny southern town with her troubled mother and younger sister Josephine (Feen). When their mother sends Feen to live with an aunt in Philadelphia, Mare decides to run away and join the military, although she is only seventeen.
Mare’s War is craftily told in alternating chapters from three points of view, seamlessly switching back and forth between the war-filled 1930s to contemporary life. Sisters Octavia and Tali send cute, humorous postcards home to their parents and friends — allowing the reader to really feel their innermost thoughts. Author Tanita S. Davis fills her novel with keen insights on life, love, and true happiness. The story follows the lives of the young women who were members of the 6888th African American Battalion of the U. S. Women’s Army Corps during World War II.
What a refreshing change from the typical young adult fare of vampires, school grudges, and mean girls! I actually learned quite a few revealing facts about the history of African American World War II WACs. Although I knew that many women served in the military during the "great war," I was surprised that black women were segregated from their white female colleagues, just as their male counterparts were separated from white military personnel.
I recommend Mare’s War to middle school girls, adults of all ages, and mother-daughter book clubs. If you enjoy Mare’s War, you may also like the author’s debut young adult fiction novel A La Carte, which features seventeen year old Lainey, who dreams of becoming a world famous chef.