Keep Smiling Through

A ten-year-old girl growing up during World War II learns the painful lesson that doing what’s right is not always easy.

On a five-acre New Jersey farm, young Kay Hennings copes with daily chores under a stern stepmother while her older sisters work shifts at the local arsenal. Longing for simple comforts like Mary Jane shoes, she seeks courage from her favorite radio serials.

When an argument erupts at a roadside stand over pro-Nazi pamphlets, Kay retrieves the forbidden paper. Hoping to help the war effort, she tells the whole truth to a visiting newspaper reporter.

She expects the unswerving justice promised by her airwave heroes, but her honesty sparks fierce anger at home and leaves her facing the home front alone.

Includes a reader’s guide.

• Kids Books About Wartime: From neighborhood scrap drives with red wagons to car headlights painted black against coastal submarine raids, authentic details show what daily life was like for children on the home front.


• Sibling Dynamics: Older brother Martin shares secret family missions and loans Kay his Jack Armstrong pedometer, while twelve-year-old Tom stands up to protect the family cow.


• School Drama: At St. Bridget’s, Kay faces cold treatment from the cliquish Golden Band girls while trying to support her grieving classmate Jennifer.


• American History for Kids: The narrative explores real-world historical tensions surrounding New Jersey’s German-American Bund rallies and the difficult balance between free speech and wartime suspicion.


• Also by This Author: The Staircase, Brooklyn Rose and Nine Days a Queen.

The book, Keep Smiling Through [Bulk, Wholesale, Quantity] ISBN#9780152053994 in Paperback by Ann Rinaldi may be ordered in bulk quantities. Minimum starts at 25 copies. Availability based on publisher status and quantity being ordered.