In response to three girls working on a class assignment about World War II, Marcel Delarue recounts his childhood in the French village of Mont-Saint-Martin, beginning in 1940 when France had just fallen to the Germans. At first, the war seems of little consequence to Marcel and his older brothers, Pierre and René, and they continue to play boyish pranks and make up outrageous stories, in an attempt to rate as the best liar. But then it becomes clear that French Jews are suffering when some Jewish friends of the boys’ uncle come to stay with them for a while and the boys are asked to keep some things secret. Then there’s the German soldier Marcel befriends. He’s not evil, as Marcel has been led to believe. Suddenly, it seems, no one is telling the truth anymore. Gregory Maguire uses an innocent child’s voice to tell a gripping story that deals with the nature of heroism and truth. (Ages 8-11)

Now an old man living in the United States, Marcel recalls his childhood in German-occupied France, especially the summer that he and his older brother Rene befriended a young German soldier.