Daughter of Light is a powerful and dramatic novel that will certainly appeal to younger readers. Set in Holland during the exceptionally cold winter of 1944, it’s the story of nine-year-old Ria, who’s determined that her family’s new baby will be born into a warm well-lit house despite the scarcity of food, heat, and electricity. Ria courageously pleads with the mayor, a Nazi sympathizer, to turn the electricity on for the sake of the baby, and her courage is rewarded with “a rare act of kindness” on the mayor’s part.

This is ground that martha attema, who came to Canada in 1981 from Holland, is clearly familiar with. Her earlier novel, A Time to Choose, also explored life in Holland during the Nazi occupation, though from a very different perspective.

Attema here has been especially sensitive to her young audience. She places difficult issues like the Nazi treatment of Jews, collaboration, and the dangers of being part of the resistance movement carefully within the context of her heroine’s life, balancing them with insights about daily life under Nazi occupation. Younger readers will respond to the details of Ria’s homeschooling at a neighbour’s farm, collecting firewood with her brother, and helping to prepare for the baby’s birth. Attema also provides an excellent historical note that includes background on the period and the birth of the real baby on New Year’s Eve 1944 who inspired this story. Like The Secret of Gabi’s Dresser, this book provides teachers and librarians with an excellent introduction for younger readers to this complex historical period.