When Christmas Comes Again: The World War I Diary of Simone Spencer (Dear America) by Beth Seidel Levine
Reading level: Ages 9-12

After stops at Pearl Harbor and the Great Depression, this exceptional historical-fiction series for young adults continues with the diary of a "hello girl"--one of the brave young switchboard operators who volunteers for the U.S. Army Signal Corps during WWI.

New York society life couldn't be more boring for 17-year-old Simone Spencer, but her diary entries are about to become a lot more exciting--for better and for worse—as President Wilson brings America into the fight against the Kaiser. Simone's beloved brother Will signs up to be a doughboy, and soon after she herself finagles her way overseas to help the war effort, putting her native-sounding French (thanks to Simone's fiery mother, her "Maman") to use at a combat switchboard. (In the chaos before the liberation of St. Mihiel, Simone recalls, "If anyone had happened on this room in the midst of the battle ... they might just have thought we had gone perfectly mad. They might have thought we were screaming at one another in a sanitarium instead of an office of war.")

Buy When Christmas Comes Again: The World...

First-time author Beth Seidel Levine does a tremendous job with her debut, spinning a charming story that folds in period details and current events with another winning Dear America female protagonist. Kids will learn along with Simone how women's involvement in the war would have a lasting impact--and, as Simone's Maman says, how sometimes "things work out better when they go the opposite way of what is expected."