COMING SOON: Victory by Carla Jablonski & Leland Purvis

~COMING SOON TO THE UMS LIBRARY~

Victory

Written by Carla Jablonski; Illustrated by Leland Purvis

Published by First Second, July 17, 2012

128 pages (paperback)

Source: NetGalley

The final installment in Carla Jablonski’s Sydney Taylor Honor-winning Resistance trilogy.

 

World War II thunders to a conclusion in this third and final installment of Jablonski and Purvis’ critically-acclaimed historical trilogy. As the Allied Forces move to retake France from its Nazi invaders, siblings Sophie, Paul, and Marie Tessier must risk their lives once more and journey into the belly of the beast: Paris. They are on a mission to deliver top-secret intel for the Resistance movement . . . they are its youngest agents.

 

A perfect mix of deft emotional storytelling and hairraising, historically accurate wartime adventure make this final chapter of the Resistance Trilogy the most satisfying yet. (from NetGalley)

I am so fortunate to have received an advanced copy of this book. I had already read the first two books in the Resistance series. The first book, Resistance, I picked up on a whim at the Student Council’s Scholastic Book Fair because it had an interesting cover and couldn’t put it down. I immediately ordered the second book and was thrilled to get to read the final book, Victory, before July. I had been looking forward to finding out what happens to these characters. Yes, I knew that the Allies would win, but I didn’t know if the Tessier family would make it out in one piece.

I have read a bunch of books about World War II, the Holocaust, and even about the French Resistance. This was one of the better books I have read in a long time. It expertly mixed history with intriguing fiction to create characters I connected with and a story I couldn’t stop reading. The fact that Victory (and the entire series) is in graphic-novel format helped me visualize the setting and historical dress/materials and increased my engagement in the story.

Besides the war and French Resistance work, Victory gives a human element to the time period. Sophie, Paul and Marie don’t know who to trust (can they even trust each other), yet they also express feelings of love and friendship for others around them. This story gives names and faces to the extraordinary work that French people did to save each other and their country.

I am thrilled to have this series as part of my library’s collection and it will definitely be among the first World War II books I recommend to students and staff.