Libby Books

Marie-Laure lives in Paris near the Museum of Natural History, where her father works. When she is twelve, the Nazis occupy Paris and father and daughter flee to the walled citadel of Saint-Malo, where Marie-Laure’s reclusive great uncle lives in a tall house by the sea. With them they carry what might be the museum’s most valuable and dangerous jewel. In a mining town in Germany, Werner Pfennig, an orphan, grows up with his younger sister, enchanted by a crude radio they find that brings them news and stories from places they have never seen or imagined. Werner becomes an expert at building and fixing these crucial new instruments and is enlisted to use his talent to track down the resistance. Deftly interweaving the lives of Marie-Laure and Werner, Doerr illuminates the ways, against all odds, people try to be good to one another. From the highly acclaimed, multiple award-winning Anthony Doerr, the stunningly beautiful instant New York Times bestseller about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II. An alternate cover for this ISBN can be found here

Josh Jones feels the added responsibility, when his grandfather and uncle sign over the family farm to him.

"I don't know who was most excited that morning when the three of us hoisted packs on our backs and started off down the trail. Just before we disappeared from view of our yard, I turned for one more wave. You woulda thought we were marching off to war or something. I even saw Aunt Lou blow her nose on her white hankie. They all looked glad and sad at the same time—happy we were doing something we really wanted to do, anxious that everything would go all right, and a bit sad we were growing up." On the brink of manhood, Josh was facing important questions about life, about love, about himself..."I sure was having a time of it trying to sort out all these different ideas and feelings—maybe I should just go fishing!"