Jackie French, Ming and Marie, Spy for Freedom (The Girls Who Changed the World, #2), HarperCollins Publishers, August 2022, 304 pp., RRP $16.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781460760215
A strange character called Herstory in today’s time, throws Ming Qong and her younger brother Tuan into the past. They time slip to the battlefields of Belgium in 1916, WWI where they are confronted by a terrifying burning cellar. It is desperate as Tuan has concussion and broken leg from being thrust into WWI. They escape but have no idea where they are. French speaking twelve-year-old Marie finds them. With dynamite she has stolen from German sabotage, she slowly reveals the dangerous world they have entered. The German soldiers are blowing up villages and food is scarce. She reveals that she is part of the female secret resistance. Adventures, dangers and near escapes engulf Ming and Marie as they navigate the devastating impacts of war in Belgian. Ming is drawn into the actions of the female secret resistance. Bravely she risks her life to knit coded messages into a scarf as she sits trying to be unnoticed at the railway station. The codes Ming knits warn the resistance of the troop, guns, and military movements.
Jackie French has uncovered a true story of the female underground spy network. Ming & Marie offers insightful revelations into war, tough choices, sacrifices by girls and women of WWI and also sacrifices of boys. This fast-paced book calls to young people to be world changers. Jackie asks that question at the end of her book.
I highly recommend Ming and Marie. Spy for Freedom for readers aged 10+ who want to understand the realities of war and the courage of girls throughout history. Ming and Marie changed the world.
But I believe that we can change the world.
Do you? (Jackie French, p. 288)
Reviewed by Susanne Gervay
