Girls They Left Behind

It had gotten to the point where Beryl was headed to the train station to watch another boy leave more that once a week. This was something she hated doing more than anything. It was during World War II and all of the boys were being shipped away and getting new lives, and she and the other women were left all alone. Beryl kept a diary during this time of everything that was going on. She got a job making goods for the war, because that made her feel like she was being patriotic, since she couldn't do anything bigger. She was on an assembly line making air planes, and she loved the work. She quit high school so she could work more hours. Other than a few of her friends leaving, she hadn't been too involved until her cousin, Carmen left. It was horrible and his mother was so worried about him. And that got worse when a telegram came saying of how he was missing in action. His mother became depressed, and even more so when another telegram came saying he had been presumed dead. She was immediately better when I third telegram came weeks later saying he had been found and was being shipped to a near-by hospital. A lot of her friends didn't ever come home from the war, but when Carmen finally came home, the war was just ended. Beryl didn't have to go to the train station and watch anymore boys leave. This book was really good and just about anyone would like to read it. It's good for all ages. The way it was written with the journal entries for chapters and the surprise ending when Carmen is actually alive are both good ways the author wrote this book. Also the way that Joan and Beryl were friends even before Carmen came home. The author wrote this book with each chapter as a journal entree, to give the effect that Beryl was telling the story. This made the book much more interesting and easier to get in to. I thought this let Beryl describe herself in a way, and be a narrator. It makes the book seem more realistic because she's writing in a diary, which is where you would tell all of your true thoughts. So through this you feel like you're reading exactly what she's thinking about everything. In this book, the ending really brings the rest of the book together. When you finish it, it makes you feel like it was really good that you read the book. When Aunt Marie received the telegram saying he was missing, the readers immediate thoughts are that he's dead, and those thoughts are confirmed when the second letter comes saying that he'd been presumed dead. The reader had almost no hope, and the author managed to bring back the character alive for a successful happy ending. Also, the way that the author made Carmen's girlfriend, Joan Beryl's friend was a good idea. Even though you could tell that Beryl was jealous, she still thought they were really good together, and could tell that Carmen really loved her. The way that Joan and Beryl kept in touch after Carmen went missing was a sort of hint that he was going to be fo

In a story drawn from events in her memoirs, Bernice Thurman Hunter uses potent realism in day by day descriptions to tell the story of one girl's transition to womanhood in the "greatest generation." The Girls They Left Behind tells about a young Canadian girl named Beryl who has to sit and watch friend after friend depart from Union Station to go off to war, leaving her behind. When even her cousin Carmen leaves, Beryl decides to move on with her life, and stand silently waving goodbye at the train station no longer. Changing her name to Natalie (deciding her other name is "not fit to print"), she gets a job helping the war effort. The things she learns from her correspondence with her "war boys" and daily life with others "they left behind" make up the heart and soul of this novel. Tiny details like descriptions of blackout curtains, buying of war bonds, and letters that arrive unreadable because of censoring provide realistic descriptions of civilian life in wartime; while other details also keep the story rooted in the forties, like when Beryl (oops,Natalie) has to wash her hair with Sunlight and vinegar because of shampoo rationings, or only buy food with certain kinds of ration stamps, or when she and her friends paint their legs with bronzers and draw a line up the back of their legs when they can't afford to buy pantyhose stockings. But the book isn't just a period piece. The story it tells of love and sacrifice and family is one just as important as any war novel about the heroism of soldiers in battle. While it may be directed to an audience primarily of girls rather than boys, it doesn't mean that anyone couldn't enjoy this easy-to-read, difficult-to-put-down story based on true events. I would recommend it as a good coming of age novel, and wouldn't be surprised to see it on teachers' lists to be used as a jumping off point for study about the Second World War. At not even 200 pages it is an easy read, but with a meaningful sentiment that is difficult to forget. (...)