The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips, by Michael Morpurgo

After the Cybils ended, and I had the freedom to read whatever the heck I wanted, I went a little crazy with interlibrary loans, requesting about fifteen books pretty much at random from my long to-be-read list. Some of the books have been on it for over a year, and I've forgotten why I added them in the first place...

One rather pleasant surprise from this recent batch was The Amazing Story of Adolpuhs Tips, by Michael Morpurgo (Scholastic, 2005, middle grade, 140 pp).

In 1943, an eleven year-old girl named Lily lives in a seaside village in England. War has brought evacuees from the cities to her school, and American soldiers are filling the streets, but life for Lily and her beloved cat, Tips, goes on pretty much as normal.

Then her entire village is ordered to leave. It is going to become a training ground for the Americans preparing for D-Day. But Tips doesn't understand his old home is now forbidden ground, and Lily risks her life going back beyond the fences to try to find him...

An American soldier, the first black person she has ever met, promises to help her. Though they meet seldom, they become true friends. And years later, when both are old, their paths cross again.

It's a gentle book, the sort that, even though I sniffed a bit in places, is a comfort read--even though the war brings disruption and loss, friendship triumphs, and Tips is found. This is a book cat-loving girls who like stories of World War II England will love--my only complaint was that at 140 pages, it was too short.