Mare's War

· Sold by Knopf Books for Young Readers
3.8
4 reviews
eBook
352
Pages
Eligible

About this eBook

Meet Mare, a grandmother with flair and a fascinating past.

Octavia and Tali are dreading the road trip their parents are forcing them to take with their grandmother over the summer. After all, Mare isn’t your typical grandmother. She drives a red sports car, wears stiletto shoes, flippy wigs, and push-up bras, and insists that she’s too young to be called Grandma. But somewhere on the road, Octavia and Tali discover there’s more to Mare than what you see. She was once a willful teenager who escaped her less-than-perfect life in the deep South and lied about her age to join the African American battalion of the Women’s Army Corps during World War II.

Told in alternating chapters, half of which follow Mare through her experiences as a WAC member and half of which follow Mare and her granddaughters on the road in the present day, this novel introduces a larger-than-life character who will stay with readers long after they finish reading.

Ratings and reviews

3.8
4 reviews
A Google user
On a parent-mandated cross-country road trip with Mere, their unpredictable grandmother, 15-year-old Octavia and 17-year-old Tali make the transformation from complaining, self-absorbed teens to observant, supportive family members. Mere talks about her life in the African-American regiment of the Women's Army Corps both on assignment in the U.S. and in the European Theater during 1944 and 1945.
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A Google user
6 September 2009
While the premise was interesting, I just couldn't get into it. In Mare's War, Mare goes and enlists in the army. While that in itself is pretty interesting, the author does nothing with it. While reading this book, I looked at the 150 or so pages I had left and just groaned. I couldn't face reading a boring book for that much longer! While a 350 ish page book would usually be finished in a few days, this one took me a couple weeks to finish up. This book has a huge capacity for historical information to be shared with the reader! Yet all Mare does is toddle around and march, giving no interesting information whatsoever. The only thing that saved this book from getting a one star is the "now" section. The book is separated between Mare's army enlistment and she and her grandchildren traveling across the country where she tells the story of her time in the army. That part was enjoyable enough, a little boring, like the rest of the story, but at least tolerable. I hate to sound pessimistic here, but I am just trying to be truthful, and the truth is a little harsh. I would say not to waste your time on this one.
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Alyssa Green
28 January 2018
It's a okay read.
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About the author

Tanita S. Davis is the author of the young adult novel A la Carte, published by Knopf in June 2008. A native Californian, she lives in Glasgow, Scotland.

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