Taking Wing

Gus finds life difficult on his grandparents' farm in 1942. He's used to living in Boston and the hard work and isolation of farm life make the coming months stretch ahead of him. He misses his father (in flight training in Texas) and mother (recuperating from TB in a sanitarium) and his grandparents seem stern and strict. When he becomes responsible for some duck eggs, his focus shifts outwards both to the farm and the people who inhabit the surrounding community. Louise Lavictoire, a 'Quebecer' from French Canada becomes his closest friend but his relationship with her is challenged by prejudice and poverty. The pace of the novel echoes the natural rhythms of farm life. Gus grows slowly into the role of caretaker for the ducks and by the time they hatch, he's assumed other farm chores such as gardening in his grandmother's large vegetable garden and helping the Lavictoires bring in their hay. Along the way he learns to shoot a gun and participates in a hog's slaughter for meat. But trouble begins to brew, beginning when Gus 'borrows' money from his grandmother to buy vitamins for Louise and then lies to cover his actions. The plot of this novel is organic, arising naturally from the characters and the nature of their lives on a farm during WWII. When Gus faces a crisis which involves both the ducks, the Lavictoires, and the gun he has learned to shoot, the reader has been drawn into the story in a manner that is both seamless and yet shocking. The strength of character that Gus has been growing in pace with the ducks is sorely tested, but the way he resolves the conflict is satisfying and believable. When I closed the last page of this novel, I was sorry to leave the characters behind. I'd grown to feel at home in their world and wanted to know more about their lives. The ending left no loose ends, but I would welcome a sequel. Gus is a memorable young boy who develops during the course of a story into an admirable young man with a quiet, impressive strength. Overall, a well-done story that will linger in your mind long after you have finished. A great story for teachers to read aloud as part of a curriculum study of the WWII era, as it presents a chance for discussions of values on many levels.