Gaynor’s tale of a missionary school in WWII China under the control of the Japanese army is a compelling read. The characters are a bit flat and predictable, but Gaynor ably captures the evolving loss of freedom, safety, and belief in the goodness of fellow humans. Readers will live the lives of the students and teachers far from home and family, learning to survive.

This is a story about WWII but it is based in China and takes place at an international school. The students are from Australia, Great Britian, and the United States. It is told from alternating perspectives of students and teachers. The school comes under control of the Japanese military and teachers and students are sent to an internment camp where life becomes extremely difficult. The story is well told and has many details but very sad.. It is not a light read but an interesting perspective on war from a different part of the world and diverse characters.

When Japan entrees World War II, students and teachers from a school for foreign children in China discover just how cruel war can be. At the same time, they discover that any situation can become “normal” and that family can become those who share in our experiences. Told from two points of view, When We Were Young and Brave shows us the horrors of being prisoners of war, but also the joys that can be found in day to day survival.

Get the tissues for this one... lots of sadness and beauty rolled into one.
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Based on a true story (which I had no idea about), this book is about The China Inland Mission School during WWII - its occupation by Japanese forces, and what happens to the teachers and students over the course of several years of living in a Japanese camp.
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Told through the eyes of a student and also a teacher, we learn what this time in history was like - and how the brave staff at the Chefoo School instilled character and good in the worst of circumstances.
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Can’t wait for this book to be published so I can tell everyone to go read it - it will stay with me for a long time.
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Five stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

When We Were Young and Brave is historical fiction focusing on the interment of American and English schoolchildren and their teachers in China by the Japanese during WWII.
The story is told from the POV of Nancy, an English schoolgirl and Elspeth, her teacher.
The author gives emotional depth to her characters, demonstrating their courage and resilience through the horrendous situation of deprivation and war. It is a story of bravery, love and determination.
I looked forward to reading another Hazel Gaynor novel and I wasn’t disappointed. An engrossing, thought provoking read.
Thank you to NetGalley and the Book Club Girls for the early reads opportunity.

Another wonderful historical fiction by Hazel Gaynor. I always know when I read one of Ms Gaynor’s books that I am not going to be able to put it down. This new title is a beautifully written book with characters you come to love and care about.
The book is set during the Japanese occupation Of China in WWII. The chapters alternate between Elspeth Kent who is a young teacher, girl guide leader, stand in mother and all time carer of the girls at the China Inland Mission School in Chefoo China, and that of a young student, Nancy Plummer.
The story told through Elspeth and Nancy tells of the determination, the hopes, the dreams and the horrific hardships of living in an internment camp in China for the years of WWII detention.
The book takes the story through the horrors of war to liberation and to the lives of the main characters many years later.
At times heartbreaking but hope, courage and the bonds of friendship and love shine through.

When We Were Young & Brave
A Novel
by Hazel Gaynor
HarperCollins Publishers
You Like Them You Are Auto-Approved
William Morrow Paperbacks
Historical Fiction | Women's Fiction
Pub Date 06 Oct 2020 | Archive Date 01 Dec 2020

Thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins for the ARC of this book! I love Historical Fiction and this is one you won't want to miss.

5 star

I received an ARC ebook copy from NetGalley. When We Were Young & Brave starts off days before Pearl Harbor is bombed and the Japanese declares war on the United States and the UK. It centers around a school in China for the children of foreign missionaries and dignitaries, specifically 10 year old Nancy and a teacher Elspeth. The characters were well written and likable. The story moved quickly and was inspirational focusing on the strength and bravery of it’s characters. WWII stories are easy to find, however what drew me to this story was it’s setting.

Hazel Gaynor is one of my favorite historical fiction writers so when I was given an opportunity by NetGalley to read an ARC copy of her latest book, “When We Were Young”, I was overjoyed! In this book, her luminous, lyrical writing details the conditions suffered by children of British, American and other expatriates who were missionaries in Japanese occupied China after Japan declared war on the Allies during World War II.

Through all the privations and cruelties the children and their teachers endured as they were moved from one prison location to another, finally ending up in a detention camp, the narrative is also laced with the kindnesses and hopes shared as the group found a way to survive their ordeal. Hazel Gaynor did an outstanding job of capturing all the nuances of alternating hope and despair, and the joys found in small triumphs of nature and love. Although the topic is sad, like the teachers and their charges, the reader finds hope and joy in each page.

In "When We Were Young and Brave," Nancy is a Girl Guide, and her teacher/Guide leader/stand-in mother is Elspeth. They are in a Christian missionary school in China for American and British children (both girls and boys, being instructed separately), when World War II breaks out and they all become trapped under Japanese occupation.

The novel mostly switches back and forth between the perspectives of Nancy and Elspeth. When the Japanese take over their beloved school, the teachers and students are first relocated to a very dilapidated set of abandoned buildings. Just when they have made life nearly bearable, they are forced to walk to an internment camp by Japanese soldiers, some of whom seem nice, considering they are imprisoning and starving hundreds of people. The officers in charge are evil, and one of them is stalking Elspeth..

The novel, which covers the entire war, is also a bildungsroman taking Nancy from girlhood to adulthood. At times, the pat, Hail-Britannia stiff-upper lip theme became irritating. Mostly, however, I was absorbed in the story line, which is well plotted with only a few slow interludes. The determination of the women and girls to survive using nothing but determination, resourcefulness, and principle almost leaped off the page in some chapters. Gaynor's character development is fairly solid throughout, so if you are looking for engaging characters to accompany to fictional wartime hell and back, this book may be a good choice. Teachers who like historical fiction may like the depiction of education against almost impossible odds.

A rebellious librarian character, Edwina Trevellyan, who is Scottish, was my favorite. Edwina provides a more worldly influence than the teachers as the schoolgirls become women and start asking "improper" questions. This pulls against the book's puritanical bent with the constant "A Guide always does this" and "A Guide never does that.". Some bad stuff is permitted to happen despite everyone's amazing British character and there are lasting scars. At least one of the students breaks bad and does what Guides Never Do in order to ensure her survival, which is another touch of realism that the novel badly needs in my opinion.

Edwina demonstrates that sometimes it takes more than a stiff upper lip to survive, and by the time the camp was liberated in 1945, I was ready to give the book four stars. Unfortunately, Gaynor added several endings in an attempt to pull on my heartstrings. This tactic was so obvious that it nearly spoiled the book for me, but I identified very much, in different ways, with Elspeth and Edwina.

This is a well done historical fiction about an aspect of WWII that I knew some about but was unfamiliar to me in many ways.. This book describes a missionary school in China during the war that soon is taken over by the Japanese. I really liked that the story is told from multiple characters to give the reader different perspectives of what it is like to be a teacher caring for children under dire circumstances and what it is like to be a child in an interment camp while far from family. We experience all their emotions as they try to cope with their horrid conditions.
The saga begins at the school before the Japanese soldiers arrive, follows the characters through their hardships in internment camps, and covers liberation with a glimpse into the years to come.
Really well written and a great look into another side of the war.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC!

Enjoyed very much and learned about an event I had never heard of. Thisbook will be enjoyed by many

The story of private school children and their teacher, as they are sent to an internment camp during WWII. The author is known for her historical fiction and this does not disappoint.

Wow! A historical fiction novel that address a little known or little talked about part of World War II; children on Chinese soil and the invasion of Japanese soldiers. It was refreshing to read about a new topic and to be spurred to do m ore in depth research into this subject. The writing was excellent and took the reader into the lives of the characters. Highly recommend.

When We Were Young & Brave follows the hardships of Christian teachers and students at a missionary school in China that falls under Japanese territory during World War II. The story is told from multiple characters to give the reader perspective of what it is like to be a teacher caring for children under dire circumstances and what it is like to be a child in an interment camp while far from family.

The saga begins at the school before the Japanese soldiers arrive, follows the characters through their hardships in internment camps, and covers liberation with a glimpse into the years to come.

This is a well done historical fiction about an aspect of World War II that was unfamiliar to me.. This book describes a missionary school in China during the war that soon is taken over by the Japanese. We learn of all the atrocities as the internment camp is depicted. The author tells her story through alternating chapters between a young student and a teacher. We experience all their emotions as they try to cope with their horrid conditions. #WhenWeWereYoungAndBrave #HazelGaynor #NetGalley

Set in China during WWII, this historical fiction relates the story of a missionary school whose teachers and students come under Japanese rule. The novel is told in alternating chapters from the point of view of British school teacher Elsbeth Kent and school girl Nancy Plummer, who is 10 at the start of the novel. Thing progress from almost bearable at the original Chefoo School location to a final move to an internment camp where they must strive for survival. It is the story of childhood friendships, hardships and tragedies and the resilient children who survive desire being separated from their families in wartime. It is the story of the brave teachers who risked all to keep their charges safe. Based on the true story of Chefoo School in Northern China this novel brings to light wartime events that are not well known. Highly recommended.

A group of Girl Guides making life better for prisoners in a Japanese internment camp during World War II is the kind of terrifying but feel good story we all need right now. What better way to try to understand how to be a good person in terrible and unprecedented times? Set first in a school, then in the Weixian Internment Camp, this novel follows one young teacher and one young student from a British boarding school for children of missionaries and diplomats in China through the years of Japanese occupation. Through hunger and violence, they continue to see the good in others and work to make life better, despite personal tragedy and suffering. Based on historical events. Definitely some teary moments in this one - bring your hankies.

This truly amazing historical fiction novel is set in China during WW II during the Japanese occupation. The story begins in a missionary school in China, and is told alternately by a young teacher, Elspeth, and a young student, Nancy. The story tells of their captivity, interment and subsequent liberation at the end of the war. The author completely captured the mood of each place they were forced to live and the conditions they lived with. The ongoing life of the main characters as they turn to each other for support, and reach out to others in the same camp, is well depicted. I especially liked the fact that the end of the novel had closure, as the book ends with information about the lives of Elspeth and Nancy after liberation. I was thrilled to read another well-done book about a part of WW II I was not familiar with. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in historical fiction. I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and HarperCollins Publishers. All opinions expressed are my own.

It was refreshing to see a WWII historical fiction taking place in China with the characters being enemy combatants detained in camps in China. Characters you fall in love with, beautiful sense of each place the characters journey to, and wonderful life words of wisdom expressed from their experiences. Also, a reminder, again, of what previous generations of many cultures have suffered in war and the amazing human spirit that endures through such tragedy.