Book Reivew - Mare's War

Mare's War by Tanita S. Davis.  Alfred A. Knopf, 2009.
Review copy provided through library interloan.

From Goodreads: Meet Mare, a grandmother with flair and a fascinating past.

Octavia and Tali are dreading the road trip their parents are forcing them to take with their grandmother over the summer. After all, Mare isn’t your typical grandmother. She drives a red sports car, wears stiletto shoes, flippy wigs, and push-up bras, and insists that she’s too young to be called Grandma. But somewhere on the road, Octavia and Tali discover there’s more to Mare than what you see. She was once a willful teenager who escaped her less-than-perfect life in the deep South and lied about her age to join the African American battalion of the Women’s Army Corps during World War II.

I was introduced to this book through my multicultural literature class that I took this past fall.  One of my classmates mentioned this book and I put it on my TBR pile and didn't think about it until this past month when I was trying to find a good book to read.  But we did not have this book at my library, so I looked at interloan which is a wonderful way for me to get a lot of my books, since the YA section in my current library is small and our YA assistant can't order every book. 

When I started reading this one over the weekend, I was instantly pulled in.  What I loved was the alternating narration.  The story moved from past to present.  Half of the story takes place during the their road trip and half take place during Mare's time in the WAC during WWII. 

This is the type of book that if it was assigned to read in school I would have enjoyed the assigned reading.  Personally I think this book should be considered for teaching in the classroom since it does explore an area of African American history that is often overlooked in school.  This is the type of book that inspires readers to do a little research about the subject matter.  I knew a little bit about the WAC, but this book presented them in a new light and I found myself fascinated by the topic.  I would recommend this book to anyone in need of a good book and one that deals with women in WWII.