Shadows on the Sea

September 15, 2003
Browsers drawn to Harlow's (Joshua's Song) WWII home-front novel by the sleek picture of a submarine in crosshairs on the cover might be in for a slight disappointment—the naval intrigue nestled into the plot doesn't fully emerge until close to the end. Jill Winter must spend the summer of '42 with her grandmother in small-town Maine; her father, a famous pop singer, is on tour, and her mother has taken a dangerous route to Newfoundland to care for her dying brother. Jill immediately makes two friends—Wendy, who, as Jill later discovers, is considered a pariah by the community, and Quarry, a salt-of-the-earth country boy. Against the backdrop of Jill's fears about her parents' safety, smaller intrigues play out. What is the purpose of her grandmother's secret Saturday night meetings with a group of women, among them a German? Why is their strange neighbor breeding pigeons (he claims they're for food, but Jill thinks otherwise)? And why are the Crystals, a local girls' clique, so determined to blackball Wendy? Harlow does an excellent job of describing the hardships of war on those back home, when rationing and a heightened sense of caution transform buttering a roll or turning on a light into something significant. Although the dialogue can be wooden and the plotting eventually strains for effect, the novel offers an enjoyable slice-of-life with an overlay of mystery. Ages 8-12.