The Fire by Night

Winston Churchill is often quoted as saying: "If you're going through hell, keep going." Jo, an army nurse for the Allied forces in World War II France, finds herself in hell: she is watching over a group of injured soldiers while surrounded by the enemy. Jo's friend Kay is in the Philippines, barely surviving as a prisoner of the Japanese while nursing wounded soldiers. Jo and Kay watch their patients die, while waiting for help and facing starvation, disease, and the constant fear of instant—or not so instant—death. Descriptions of the hardships of the women's current lives are interspersed with flashbacks to their time as eager young student nurses, ready to take on the world. The horrific reality of their work within the confines of a war that brings death, destruction, starvation, and terror is surpassed only by their determination to endure. This is grim reading, but teens will learn about women's vital contributions to the war effort and the many roles they played.