Code Name Pauline: Memoirs of a World War II Special Agent

Gr 8 Up—Parachuted into France in 1943 to be a courier for a resistance group in Nazi-occupied France, 29-year-old Pearl Witherington ended up leading four Maquis groups-more than 3,500 French guerrilla warriors. They continued to harass and sabotage the enemy until late in 1944 when France was liberated. Agent Pauline then retreated to private life and married her French fiancé. Not wanting her own role dramatized or exaggerated, she refused even to give interviews. But late in life, French journalist Larroque convinced her that her life story could be a model for young people. He first published a transcript of his interviews with Pearl and her husband, Henri Cornioley, himself, in French, and arranged for an English translation. Atwood has reordered that material into a straight narrative, preserving the subject's "own choice of words and her own style of speaking," but adding chapter-by-chapter introductory material for necessary historical background. The memoir begins with chapters about Pearl's childhood in France and Henri's early courtship, her escape from occupied France to England (both parents were English), and her training with the French section of the Special Operations Executive. But the major focus is on her year as a special agent: the parachute drop, life as a courier, and organizing and working with the Maquis. Not surprisingly, her story is less compelling than that of the fictional heroines of Elizabeth Wein's Code Name Verity (Hyperion, 2012), but it is authentic. She did, Witherington says in an appendix of extra interview material, what "had to be done."—Kathleen Isaacs, Children's Literature Specialist, Pasadena, MD