The Romeo and Juliet Code
By: Phoebe Stone
Summary
Felicity is an eleven year old British girl who lives in England with her mom and dad and still carries around a stuffed bear named Wink. When Britain is getting to dangerous for children Felicity's parents take her to Maine to live with her dad's relatives. When she gets to Maine she meets her grandmother who they call "The Gram" and her aunt who is obsessed with Romeo and Juilet. She finds out that there is some mysterious person behind a door she is not allowed to talk to or meet. Suddenly her uncle starts receiving letters from Portugal in her father's handwriting. Felicity secretly peeks at one of the letters and she finds they are written in code. She starts getting a suspicion of whether her parents are safe or not. Can Felicity figure out the code and figure out what is wrong with her parents?
Theme
I think the theme is that people should stay strong through hard times because in the end you might benefit from that hard time. I think this is the theme because in the book Felicity is really missing her parents and looks to her stuffed bear Wink, but in the end Felicity decides that she is happy where she is and the she doesn't need Wink. Another connection is, when Felicity's relatives are always whispering and she never knows what they are talking about, but in the end Felicity finds out they were keeping from her for her own good. The last connection is, that when Felicity can't figure out why her uncle is getting coded letters from her dad she decides to find out why her parents are writing the letters and in the end figures out who her parents are and that they have helped a ton of people. This is an important lesson for everyone to remember.
Operation Pied Piper
Operation Pied Piper was a mission to get British children and some adults shipped away to places like the United States or South Africa. The children or adults were put on trains, buses, or boats and then shipped to the different places. The operation evacuated 3 million people within the first four days of the mission. The plans for this operation started in 1938 in the summer and a year later the London County Council started ordering buses and trains. This operation started on September 1, 1939. Every child who was in line to leave had to have a small cardboard box around there neck with a gas mask in it. The children's name card was pinned to there coat and the kids with siblings clung to them and refused to let go anywhere with out them.
Reflection
I think the author did a lot of good research on The Pied Piper Operation. The Pied Piper Operation is connected to the book because Felicity was one of the British children who was fleeing to the United States. The author talked about Felicity seeing all of the brave young faces boarding a train to go to the U.S. or Canada. Felicity instead of going on a train though she went with her parents on a ship and she talked about being sea sick and everything was nailed down to the floor so it would not slide around the boat. I thought the author did a good job explaining what Felicity thought or felt during the ship to the U.S. with her parents.
Citation
Zimmerman, Dwight. "Operation Pied Piper: The Evacuation of English Children During World War II | Defense Media Network."Defense Media Network Operation Pied Piper The Evacuation of English Children During World War II Comments. 31 Dec. 2011. Web. 12 Dec. 2014. <http://www.defensemedianetwork.com/stories/operation-pied-piper-the-evacuation-of-english-children-during-world-war-ii/>.