Rumors of Peace by Leffland, Ella - 1979

New York: Harper & Row, 1979. Book Club. Hardcover. Good/Good. 400 pages; ex-library with usual markings, some damage to pastedowns, edge wear to jacket and boards, corners bumped; To ten-year-old Suse Hansen, the fighting in Europe seems far away from the blue skies and quiet streets of her Bay Area home in Mendoza, California--despite newspaper war photographs and the tense radio broadcasts. But Pearl Harbor changes everything. Caught up in the fear and uncertainty of air raid drills, draft calls, and the mysterious departure of her Japanese and Italian neighbors, Suse becomes obsessed with the war. As Mendoza and the rest of America adjust to their new lives, Suse, too, will face challenges of her own as she begins to navigate the uncharted terrain of adolescence. Over the next four years she will confront the complexities of life--the demands of school, evolving friendships, brothers and sisters leaving home, the disturbing thrill of sexual awakening--while trying to understand who she is and what the future may hold for a world consumed by the horror of war. A rediscovered classic, "Rumors of Peace" is an extraordinary coming-of-age story chronicling the loss of American innocence through the voice of one remarkable young girl.