When Christmas Comes Again: The World War I Diary of Simone Spencer, New York City to the Western Front 1917 (Dear America Series)
After stops atPearl  Harborand theGreat  Depression, this exceptional historical-fiction series for young adults  continues with the diary of a "hello girl"--one of the brave young switchboard  operators who volunteers for the U.S. Army Signal Corps during WWI.New York society life couldn't be more boring for 17-year-old Simone Spencer,  but her diary entries are about to become a lot more exciting--for better and  for worse—as President Wilson brings America into the fight against the Kaiser.  Simone's beloved brother Will signs up to be a doughboy, and soon after she  herself finagles her way overseas to help the war effort, putting her  native-sounding French (thanks to Simone's fiery mother, her "Maman") to use at  a combat switchboard. (In the chaos before the liberation of St. Mihiel, Simone  recalls, "If anyone had happened on this room in the midst of the battle ...  they might just have thought we had gone perfectly mad. They might have thought  we were screaming at one another in a sanitarium instead of an office of  war.")First-time author Beth Seidel Levine does a tremendous job with her debut,  spinning a charming story that folds in period details and current events with  another winning Dear America female protagonist. Kids will learn along with  Simone how women's involvement in the war would have a lasting impact--and, as  Simone's Maman says, how sometimes "things work out better when they go the  opposite way of what is expected." (Ages 9 to 12)--Paul Hughes