I'm looking for the title and author of a children/young adult book
that I read in the late 70's to mid 80's.  It was about a young girl
in WWII who is traveling by herself trying to make it back to her
house.  I believe she was with a group of people evacuating the town
and turned back to find her father at the house.  She travels by
herself but may have procured a horse along the way.  When she finally
makes it back to her house, she finds the enemy is using it as
headquarters.  I think she does something to foil a plot of theirs and
is then reunited with her father, but that part of my memory is even
more vague then the rest of the details.
This may have been a Scholastic book as I believe I ordered through the school.

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Request for Question Clarification by juggler-ga on 02 Aug 2004 13:19 PDT

Would you happen to remember the country where the action takes place?

France?  Holland?  Poland?

Hello.

I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that your book was "Journey
Into War" (1979) by Margaret Donaldson.

Several factors point to "Journey Into War" being the right book:

(1) It was published by Scholastic.
(2) It was published in 1979.
(3) It takes place during World War II.
(4) It involves a girl who is evacuated from her home as the Germans invade.
(5) The girl returns to the area to look for her father.
(6) The girl gets involved a plot to sabotage the Germans.



"Journey into War  by Margaret Donaldson.  The German Nazis are
marching into France, and ten-year-old Janey's father thinks that she
should go and live with relatives in England until the war is over."
http://www.homeschoolfavourites.com.au/Literature.htm

Journey Into War
By Margaret Donaldson
Published by Scholastic Book Services
Copyrighted in 1979
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0525971092/

"Journey into war
By Margaret Donaldson 
Published by Scholastic Book 
The main character is a French girl named Janey and two Polish boy
named Tadek and Stefek. The three children has formed a club called
the Young Eagles to defeat the Germans soldiers that is attacking
France.The main setting is in France in a little French town called
St. Quentin. It takes part during World War 2."
http://pets-books.com/search_Margaret_Donaldson/searchBy_Author.html


The most challenging thing to establish here was the element of the
girl returning to search for her father.  That part appears in the
description of a sequel by the same author:

"DONALDSON, Margaret  The moon's on fire  1980
In the summer of 1940 Janey is stranded in France. She decides she
must find her father, even though it means travelling north again into
a part of France already under German occupation. When she meets up
with Polish twins they try to sabotage the German headquarters in a
village, but Janey is taken prisoner."
http://www.neutralbay-p.schools.nsw.edu.au/library/bibwar.htm

I strongly suspect that this description is actually referring to
events in "Journey Into War" (1979) rather than "The Moon's On Fire"
(1980). Why?   Well, because all other descriptions of "The Moon's On
Fire" indicate that it takes place in London, not France.  See:
"Alone in London during the Blitz, Stefek tries to find Janey and
rescue his brother Tadek from Wattie the Wolf."
http://www.abetitles1.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=182565276
http://www.alibris.com/search/search.cfm?qwork=4458003

Presumably, the lead characters have escaped from France to England at
the end of "Journey Into War."

-----------
search strategy:
book "find her father" nazis war
"Margaret Donaldson" janey scholastic

I hope "Journey Into War" is the book that you had in mind.  If not,
please let me know via the "request clarification" feature. Thanks.

Nice job, Juggler!  I wasn't sure that was the right title at first as
I didn't remember anything about boy twins.  I checked around the plot
summaries though and that's the one.  I have a few more book title I'm
looking for so I hope you're ready for another challenge.  Thanks!

Thank you for the tip.
-juggler