“In May 1945, a Dutch girl named Kat­je is thrilled to receive a let­ter and a pack­age of socks, soap, and choco­late from Rosie, a girl she does­n’t know who lives in May­field, Indi­ana. The kids start to exchange let­ters, and when Rosie’s fam­i­ly mem­bers learn of Hol­land’s severe post-war depri­va­tions, they enlist May­field res­i­dents to send food and clothes to Kat­je, who gen­er­ous­ly shares the gifts with oth­ers in her com­mu­ni­ty. The sense of suf­fer­ing isn’t strong here, in part because the Dutch towns­peo­ple are almost always depict­ed as smil­ing about the pack­ages. But the sto­ry is still mov­ing, and Dressen-McQueen’s live­ly illus­tra­tions, in col­ored pen­cil, oil pas­tel, and acrylic, pack lots of col­or, pat­tern, and his­tor­i­cal details onto every expan­sive page. Flem­ing based the book on her moth­er’s expe­ri­ence, which she describes in an author’s note; in the real-life sto­ry, how­ev­er, adults, not chil­dren, orches­trat­ed the events, a find­ing that may be a lit­tle dis­ap­point­ing to kids who took the book, with its spe­cif­ic dates, town names, and hero­ic, gen­er­ous chil­dren, as straight fact.” (Kath­leen Odean, Book­list)