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White Eagles by Elizabeth Wein


Summer 1939. With Europe on the brink of war, eighteen-year-old Kristina Tomiak has been called up to join the White Eagles, Poland's valiant air force. When the Nazis reach the town where she is based, Kristina makes a daring escape, but she doesn't realise that she's carrying a stowaway in her plane. Will Kristina be able to navigate the most challenging flight of her life and reach safety amid the turmoil of war? Particularly suitable for struggling, reluctant or dyslexic readers aged 13+

I love Barrington Stoke's books. They have a huge range of accessible titles written by some awesome YA authors which are always cracking reads. I particularly love their historical fiction range for using at school so I was very excited indeed when I heard this book was coming from them written by Elizabeth Wein.

White Eagles is the story of Kristina as she escapes the Nazis as they reach the town in which she is based during their invasion into Poland flying her own plane. What I loved about this book in particular is that it was such an exciting ride from start to finish and featured a female lead. All so often war books do not feature any female leads and this is really sad and does a real injustice to the women who contributed to the war effort. I also liked the insight into another part of the war I hadn't really thought about in any detail. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

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