Ellie counted the days on the kitchen calendar. October 2nd was a Saturday. Twenty-one days until Jimmy had to go. That was a long time. Maybe the war would be over by then. But the days slipped by as fast as the trees shed their leaves. And the war didn't end. Ellie hates the stars proudly displayed in her neighbours' windows: a blue one for every man gone to serve in the war, a gold one for every man who will never return. She doesn't want a star - all she wants is for her big brother Jimmy to stay safely at home. But then Jimmy is called up, and Ellie can only desperately hope that his star never turns gold.

 

This book was published 2015 by Usborne Publishing Ltd .

Mary Ann Rodman was inspired to write Yankee Girl, her first novel, after leaving her job as a librarian and moving to Thailand. The experience of dealing with a completely different culture reminded her of her childhood years spent in Jackson, Mississippi in the 1960s. Mary Ann moved to Mississippi during the height of the civil rights movement when her father, an FBI agent, was sent to work there. Mary Ann now lives in Alpharetta, Georgia.