Love-Lies-Bleeding

Dave Jenkinson is a professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Manitoba and the author of the “Portraits” section of Emergency Librarian.

Middle-school girls who enjoyed Judy Blume’s Are You There God? It’s
Me, Margaret (1970) and Bernice Thurman Hunter’s Booky: A Trilogy
(1998) will delight in a historical offering that combines the best
features of both those titles. Haworth-Attard’s book is a girl’s
coming-of-age story set against the backdrop of the effects of World War
II on members of a blue-collar family living in London, Ontario.

Roberta Harrison, aka Bobby, keeps a diary whose entries run from
September 12, 1943, to June 26, 1944. The almost-daily entries record
events of interest to this Grade 8 girl, as well as those external
happenings that intrude on her life. Changing friendships, crushes, and
her first period are just some of Bobby’s personal concerns, while the
safety of her older brother Alex and her Uncle Billy, both soldiers
overseas, is the major source of outside anxiety. Other sources of
tension include the pregnancy of Bobby’s 18-year-old unwed sister,
Caroline, which leads to a quick marriage and family discord, plus
Bobby’s fear that her brother Brian, almost 16, will try to enlist
illegally.

A Christmas Day, 1943, telegram announces Billy’s death in combat and
Alex’s being wounded. Invalided home, Alex is hospitalized locally;
although his physical wounds heal, he suffers from “combat
exhaustion.” While visiting Alex, Bobby meets a young soldier whose
right arm has been amputated, and a romance gradually develops.

Adding to the text’s feeling of authenticity is the inclusion of
excerpts from letters sent by the author’s father to his family during
the war. The book’s title refers to plants that Aunt Lily, Uncle
Billy’s widow, tears from her flower garden on hearing of her
husband’s death. Highly recommended.