I just finished The Romeo and Juliet Code by Phoebe Stone....and I loved it! It is a beautiful story that takes place in Maine from May -December 1941. The war already going on in Europe is central to the novel about Felicity who has been sent from London to live with relatives for the duration. Naturally the novel is melancholy as is Felicity, but because she is 11 there are also moments of joy, and love, and laughter. If I had better words to describe how lovely this novel is, I would be a writer myself.
I hope there will NOT be a sequel or follow-up novel. It ended with unanswered questions, but they are appropriately unanswered. That is just the way it should be in some books. [Sure, we wonder what kind of adults Huck, Jem and Scout, and Holden turned out to be. And I would not mind knowing what happened to Tom, Daisy, and Nick (mostly Nick).] BUT, not all stories should have a sequel or even a book with the same characters that is not really a sequel. The not knowing is just like what people of the time were experiencing, not knowing if loved ones would return or if the Nazis really would be defeated, it is just the way it is sometimes.
I can now say definitively that the cover of this book is completely inappropriate. When I read this article from School Library Journal it got me thinking about covers in general. I get that covers can be a figurative representation of the content...but this one is downright awful. I mean, it is an attractive cover, but readers who are drawn in by the cover are likely to be disappointed by the content, and readers who love World War II historical fiction will not go anywhere near this book when browsing. It is really the book's only disappointment and sad since it is so wonderful.
