Writer Priscilla Galloway has solicited 11 original reminiscences from Canadian writers who were children during the Second World War. Although most grew up in safety here in Canada, each was unforgettably touched by the war. Christopher Chapman lost a brother. Joy Kogawa felt the sting of racism even before she and her brother were interned with other Japanese Canadian families. Monica Hughes recounts painful memories of banishment to boarding school in a safer part of Scotland than her native Edinburgh. Some, like Jean Little, feared enemy torpedoes and submarines or the spread of battle from Europe. Most were protected from knowing the worst: Roch Carrier acknowledges with amazement his youthful ignorance of the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

There are many common threads: rationing and saving stamps, Victory gardens, radio shows, war guests, songs, and movies. Yet each voice is unique and compelling.

Because these writers were children, the war is not a distinct memory but, as Janet Lunn writes, “all a jumble intertwined with the normal stresses and strains of growing up.” The narratives share, for the most part, a youthful tendency to romanticize, a strong sense of patriotism, and, for most, a sense of pride, writes Dorothy Joan Harris, that “we will perhaps never be so united again.”

Galloway’s fine collection of very personal and affecting testimonials will go a long way in helping young people today understand, through a variety of experiences and voices, what those times must have been like.