When the War Is Over

Lisa Arsenault is an elementary-school teacher in Ajax, Ontario.

When the War Is Over tells the story of a Dutch girl, Janke, who was in
her early teens when the Germans invaded the Netherlands in 1940. Janke
responds to the brutal repressions of the Nazi regime by joining the
Dutch Resistance, acting initially as a courier and progressing to a
more dangerous assignment as the war wears on.

The author does a wonderful job of illustrating the psychological
effects of the war. Janke and her best friend eventually begin to speak
about killing Germans in the same way they talk about being sorry that
their clothes are too small or that they haven’t been able to dance in
years. They admit that they now “need the danger” that comes with
being in the Resistance, and that they will never, realistically, be
able to return to their former lives when the war is finally over.

The character of Janke speaks with an authentic voice. She has the same
problems as teenagers everywhere, and in every period, except that they
are heightened and exacerbated by conflict. Her mother is a difficult
woman with problems of her own that have been magnified by stress and
that lead to discord between the two. Janke falls in love with the wrong
man, actually a Nazi, and must deal with the attendant feelings of
shame, fear, and loneliness. The reader empathizes with her internal, as
well as external, struggles. Recommended.