Threads of Blue

Beautiful Blue World #2

by Suzanne LaFleur

A war took Mathilde away from her family when she was chosen to serve her country, Sofarende, with other children working on a secret military project. 
 
But now the other children—including her best friend, Megs—have fled to safety, and Mathilde is all alone, determined to complete her mission.
 
In this sequel to Beautiful Blue World, Mathilde must make her way through a new stage of the war. Haunted by the bold choice she made on the night she chose her country’s future over her own well-being, she clings to the promise Megs made long ago: “Whatever happens, I’ll be with you.”

Genres: Middle Grade, War, Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Realistic Fiction, Friendship, Fiction

226 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 12, 2017

About the author

I grew up outside Boston in Newton, and later Natick, MA. During the school year I went to Catholic school, did a lot of homework, and read a couple books a week. During the summer I read a couple books a day and spent hours swimming and playing outside at our local pool or beach. I was very much a planner, dreamer, and writer, creating plays and shows for my siblings and the neighborhood kids to be in and filling up entire notebooks with novels. I always read late into the night and slept with a book under my pillow.

I went to college in Lexington, VA at Washington and Lee, where I studied English and European History; I went to grad school in New York City at The New School, where I studied Writing for Children.

Now I divide my time between Natick, MA and New York. Due to my frequent travels, I don't really have a "typical" day, but most days I spend some time writing, reading, exercising (swimming, lifting, or walking), and visiting with friends. I like to warm up for writing by playing computer games. I do my best writing at home in my pajamas, though a lot of days I will venture out to a library to work (in jeans and a sweatshirt, rather than PJ's!). Most days I take a nap, which I tend to do with a book on my chest, whether or not I was actually reading it before I fell asleep. I still read before bed, and, now that I'm older and have a big bed to myself, I slide the book I'm reading under the pillow next to me (rather than the one I'm planning to sleep on!).

Because readers of all ages visit me here on Goodreads, I really do like to put up a genuine record of what I read, whether it's for kids, teens, or adults. The books I read are not intended as recommendations for any particular age group.

Reviews

[Kate Willis · Rating 4 out of 5]

2019 Re-read
This was so perfect and so beautiful and so hard to read. <3 I love this series so much, and I wish everyone would read it. Another great buddy read with Mikayla. ;)

Original Review
So, I cried.

Beautiful Blue World was one of my favorite books I’ve read earlier this year, and I was eagerly looking forward to the sequel. When my library finally ordered it (thank you, book ninjas!), I checked it out and set it aside… waiting for the perfect moment to enjoy this amazingness.

It had the same wonderful writing style that stole my heart and the same themes that broke it in the first book. Mathilde’s decision in book one had some SERIOUS repercussions, and I found it very accurate that all of the children were dealing with some hard decisions/consequences. Such is wartime. Megs, Annevi, and Gunnar (especially, Gunnar) were great, and I liked Micah though he could be irritating sometimes. ;)

The Eilean soldiers, the fisherman, and the refugee mother, all were bright spots in a story that could tend toward being sad. And in a similar way, Mathilde’s gift was even more important in this book, and I loved the overall message of kindness as a weapon.

I smiled over Mathilde’s treasures.
I gasped when she saw a familiar face.
I hurt inside along with her on the train.
And I cried with hope over the cottage with the three poppies and the threads of blue. <3

Just a note, there was a slight humanistic worldview. Also, a very personal, violent wartime tragedy was not described but was conceptually disturbing and sad.

Best quote: He hugged me. It was a good thing that pretend siblings parting in wartime could hug for as long as they needed to.

Altogether, this was a great sequel, and I’m so glad I’ve read it. Read it for yourself and love it. <3


(Can we talk about the amazing cover?! It took me a while to fully understand.)

[mary liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

In a word, this is bittersweet. Beautiful in a heartbreaking yet somehow hopeful way.

I'm deeply touched by this book and the themes will resonate with me for a long time. Do yourself and read this book and its companion, Beautiful Blue World. You might just rediscover how beautiful our world is, even in the midst of all the pain. <3

4 stars!

[Libby May · Rating 4 out of 5]

Because life isn't about happily ever afters. It's about rising from the ashes of your shattered heart and pressing forward, doing what you know is right.

[Mikayla · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heartbreaking and beautiful at the same time.

After reading Beautiful Blue World, I wasn't sure how the sequel was going to hold up to it, but somehow it did. This was just as beautiful as the first book but in different ways. Showing the dynamic interactions of friendships through the eyes of a child, it hit really close to home. Mathilde struggles with hurting her friends, being hurt by them, and trying to rebuild what they had. She has to weigh whether to follow the calls of duty to her country or friendship so many times.
Even the 'background' characters popped off the page, their interaction with Mathilde a perfect backdrop to her other relationships.
I really love friendship story's, so this just hit the spot with me.

So much happens in the last 50 or so pages, sometimes it almost felt to fast, but I almost liked it that way. It gave a little feeling of how rushed Mathilde felt in the story.

That ending though. It was everything and nothing I was expecting and wanting. I don't know how that is even possible, but it was.

Overall, this was a spectacular sequel to Beautiful Blue World. I wish there was like a short story ending to it all, but in a way, I also like it how it was ended. (I told you this was complicated.)

Re-read 2019: This book crushed me and made me so happy at the same time. I laughed, I cried, I curled up in a ball afterward and just starred out my window for ten minutes. It was wonderful. I wanted to highlight the whole book.

[Aria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this almost more than the first.

[Joey · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great conclusion to Mathilde’s story. An enjoyable read and squeaky clean.
Happy reading guys!

[Malachi Cyr · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was a very good sequel to Beautiful Blue World, and many of my thoughts about this one are the same as in my review on that one. (Also, read the first book before reading this one, or you'll miss out on a lot or just be completely lost.) It gently showed even more than the last one the terrible and serious side of war from the eyes of a child who grew up all too fast. I liked the setting for the children's work a little better in this one, but that's just a personal preference. And I was very, very sad when that train got hit and the people inside it. Really brought things home in the story. :'( Gunner or Gunther or whatever his name was my favorite in this one, although I still liked Rainer. Once again, it was a great book that you should read.

[Mikayla · Rating 5 out of 5]

RTC

[Souhaila · Rating 5 out of 5]

so I cried.

[J.C. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like my fifth reread, and I still just sit there and cry at the end.

[Alex Baugh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Threads of Blue is the sequel to Beautiful Blue World, a story about children involved in an nameless war between fictional countries, a landscape that bears an uncanny resemblance to Europe. After being tested for their suitably, some children of Sofarende are sent away from their families to a remote area called Faetre as part of an Adolescent Army unit, where they worked on important intelligenc for the war effort. While in Faetre, the children were not allowed any contact with their families.

You may recall that at the end of Beautiful Blue World, Mathilde Joss, 12, had committed what might be considered an act of treason that had caused her to become separated from the other members of her Adolescent Army unit as they are being evacuated to the safety of Eilean, an ally of Sofarende.

Now, Mathilde must try and find out where the Adolescent Army is on Eilean, after being brought across the sea that separates it from Sofarende. There is danger everywhere, even on Eliean, but Mathilde meets a kind family who takes her to a refugee camp to wait until she is eventually reunited with the other Sofarende kids and adults in her unit.

Once reunited with them, Mathilde waits to see if she will be punished for what she did before leaving Sofarende. And, even worse, her best friend Megs refuses to speak to her or even look at her for reasons Matilde can’t figure out, yet everyone else is as friendly as they had always been. Meanwhile, as Sofarende falls to the constant bombing of its enemy Tyssia, Mathilde works on maps to determine where their air force should drop their bombs in Sofarende in order to drive out the Tyssians.

While Mathilde tries to deal with some of the moral and ethical issues inherent in her war work and war in general, she must also come to terms with loss on several levels. Surprisingly, she gets help from an unexpected source, and moral support from others. All Mathilde really wants is to be best friends with Megs again, and to return to her beloved home and family. But then the horror of war, and the senseless killing and destruction that comes with it are brought home to Mathilde when she is sent to Sofarende on a secret mission. Will this young girl ever find the love and peace she craves?

If you haven’t read Beautiful Blue World, I would recommend doing so, but even if you don’t, you will have no problem reading Threads of Blue. There is enough explanation of the events from the first book embedded in this sequel so you won’t be lost.

The story is told from Mathilde's point of view, though experience has taken some of the innocence out of her stream-of-consciousness observations. She astutely describes life as a refugee living in a camp set up for Sofarenders fleeing their country as the war intensifies: the constant hunger, the inability to wash, the feelings of frustration everyone feels, all while mourning the loss of their country and loved ones. And when she returns to her homeland, she is stunned by the extent of ruin that the war had inflicted. In that respect, the images LaFleur word paints are particularly poignant and so, so very anti-war.

Along that vein, look closely at the cover image of three children, two boys and a girl wearing a knapsack, who is obviously Mathilde, sitting in a row boat. They couldn't look more innocent, until you look more closely and see the faint shadows of bombs falling on them. This image says so much.

Like Beautiful Blue World, Threads of Blue is a brilliant novel about the ravages of war, but it is also a story about holding on to who you really are even when it causes you trouble, and facing life with bravado, honesty, and hope in a world where none seems to exist. These are two books not to be missed.

This book is recommended for readers age 9+
This book was purchased for my personal library.

[Suzanne Maley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This sequel to Beautiful Blue World continues a poignant story about war and having no clear choices. But also despite all the bad things happening, there are always good people and even a soldier can be kind. The sequel flows seamlessly from the first book. Would make an interesting book discussion set of books. The writing creates a bond between the reader and the protagonist, Mathilde. The war ends and as a reader I wished for another book about the characters.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

I became thoroughly attached to the novel's heroine Mathilde. Such a powerful book!

[Challice · Rating 4 out of 5]

"I checked how my hands fit over each print again. No matter how much I tried, I couldn't match my hands to what had once been my own prints."

Just as haunting and captivating as the first book. I picked this up and did not set it down until it was finished. The story picks up from the first with Mathilde landing on the island after escaping her home. Mathilde deals with a lot in this story. She is only twelve and she is wrapped in the middle of a war from without and within.

LaFluer does a marvelous job of weaving in little things that connect us to what we know, such as red poppies on a door to signify the loss of a child soldier. The book is wonderful in that the author writes in such a way that you wonder which direction she is heading; is Mathilde within friends, or foe? Is she a refugee or a prisoner? Can she trust this person? But it is told in such a way that its like what you would expect a child to question. It was marvelously done.

"We couldn't hide or cover up what the cloth had been through; we had to accept that it had been patched back together and would be forever a little bit different."

The only thing I found "objectionable" in this second one is the friendship crisis between Mathilde and whom she calls her twin sister, "Megs". It's intense in the sense that they aren't talking to each other and tempers flare. But I didn't really see it as an issue but I could understand why some more conservative parents would want to be forewarned. There is no boy-girl stuff. She has a friendship with a boy but that is all I see it as.

I will be looking forward to more from this author. And fun side note. I went looking online and one of the books that she really enjoyed as child was, The Giver. I thought this had similar vibes to it, but not as dystopian.

[Becky Ginther · Rating 3 out of 5]

I just don't know. I found the first book to be a little bit of an odd read, and this one was even more off for me. I'm not sure I can completely pinpoint why. Please excuse any spelling errors of the names/places because I listened to it on audiobook so I never saw the spellings. We pick up right where Beautiful Blue World left off - Mathilde has escaped her war-torn home country of Soferende and arrived in Elian, separated from her group. She spends a portion of the book trying to get back to them, a portion of the book working with them and trying to make the most of their new position, and the last part of the book trying to find her family.

I think perhaps my struggle with this book is that the area of the war is rather abstract - we don't know a lot of details about it, why it's really happening, etc. I had thought in the first one they were building to some interesting or exciting twist but it never happened, and there was no clever plot twist here either. And then the war just ended in what felt like an all of the sudden way. I just was never truly sucked in or invested in the story.

I thought the characters were intriguing in the first one, but it didn't feel like they did all that much to develop them here. So much of the first one centers on Mathilde's relationship with Megs, and in this book it's utterly destroyed. I know we are given a reason for why Megs is acting this way at the end, but it still seemed an abrupt and jolting change of character. I was more interested in Gunner and Rainer, who we saw glimpses of.

Overall it's not a bad book, I think it's for a certain type of person, but it just didn't click with me the way I'd hoped it would.

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this sequel to Beautiful Blue World, Mathilda has made her way to Eilean. Since she's alone and has no idea where to go, she knocks on the door of a family, and is taken in briefly. Mr. Parmeter and his wife have already lost sons to the war, but they befriend Mathilda, and he takes her to the authorities in a refugee camp where she can deliver the message she has carried. Eventually, she is reunited with the other youngsters who were part of Sofarende's military force, but her best friend Megs refuses to forgive her for helping Rainer escape. Eventually, Mathilda is allowed to go home where she finds that nothing is the same after all the bombing on the part of the Tyssians. Just as it looks as though she might find her family, tragedy strikes. One of the things I noticed most about this book and its predecessor is how uncertain the lines between friends and enemies are and how the students who have been enlisted to help in the war efforts end up doing harm to their own country in the name of peace. These are lessons that are important for all of us, especially in these uncertain times. Readers will surely reconsider their own idea about loyalty and patriotism as well as the wages of war while reading this book and its companion.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was such a huge fan of Beautiful Blue World, the first book in this duology, that I woke up earlier than usual just to get a head start on this one. At the time, I wrote that Beautiful Blue World was a perfect book for a younger reader who wanted something dark and Hunger-Gamesy because “While there aren't easy answers here, I still get this brimming sense of optimism for humanity's general direction from this book.”

I felt the first book focused on an unusual moral quandary of selecting talented children, taking them away from their families, protecting them, and then turning them into wartime super-spies, kinda like a cross between X-Men and Alex Rider, but without as much hyperbole and fanfare. I wanted to know how the main character, the relatively unexceptional Mathilde, would find her place.

Instead of deepening the characters, relationships, and broader issues about participation in war and defense, this book goes the opposite direction. This book flattens the unusual premise, packs in a lot of plot for such a slender book, and slights terrific and interesting characters.

It’s hard to say if I’m more disappointed in this book because I have such high expectations for LaFleur.

[Angie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Threads of Blue picks up immediately after the events of Beautiful Blue World. Mathilde is now in Eilean having fled Sofarende. She has been separated from her group and sent to a refugee camp. In the refugee camp she learns what all refugees learn, that life away from danger is not always better than life in danger. Being a refugee is hard, but Mathilde makes the best of it and even makes friends. When she is finally reunited with the other kids from her unit she keeps waiting for something to happen because of what she did before fleeing Sofarende. The only change is that her best friend Megs won't speak to her. Mathilde also learns what it is like to be in an army in exile trying to free your homeland and how destructive that can be on both the homeland and your psyche.

Threads of Blue is such a timely novel even if it is written set on another world. It speaks to the world today about refugees and war and the destruction brought by both sides of any conflict. LaFleur is definitely on the anti-war side of things and brings that point of view to the forefront in a very accessible way to her readers. Mathilde is a sympathetic character who just wants to do what is right and be with her family again. Sometimes those desire are in conflict with what is going on around you.

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I want to mark this "Historical Fiction." I want to recommend this with the other Children's books about WWII. I'm sure if I glanced at a map sideways, just right, I would see these countries listed (maybe in parentheses, or in some alternate listing in the back of an obscure atlas in a dusty shop around a corner). These books, the characters, and their experiences have become so real to me. I am having a difficult time coming out of their world.

Continuing Mathilde's journey across the sea, and across the repercussions of her decision from the first book, Threads of Blue grabs the reader and throws them into the story immediately. New characters, new settings, as well as some familiar characters, weave throughout the narrative. I love Mathilde. She is stubborn, often impulsive, sometimes rash, and wholly deserving of love. The thoughts of war, and the choices these children make, the responsibilities placed upon them, are humbling and heart-wrenching.

Parts of the story happened rather quickly. Maybe this is more of a personal feeling as I wanted to linger as long as possible. I would love more books set in this world and with these characters.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved Beautiful Blue World and couldn't wait to see what happened next in the sequel (yes, sequel! Not a trilogy!). I was satisfied that we not only picked up right where we left off, but that the author also filled me in a bit and refreshed my memory. I was fascinated, again, by her story being neither fantasy nor historical fiction, but portraying a completely made up but altogether horribly accurate scene of warring countries and, in this one, refugees. This one actually felt more realistic than the other one.
While I really liked this a lot I think I would have liked it more if it were longer, or really delved into some aspects that seemed to wrap up neatly. Perhaps it is left open to other companion novels? I was left a little wanting in some parts. (but perhaps a child would not be) That said, what is there is beautifully written and I was satisfied by this conclusion. A unique pair of books. And I have to say, this one prompted me to think about an aspect of warfare I'd not considered before, which was helping an occupied country by being forced to damage it.

[Cindy Mitchell *Kiss the Book* · Rating 3 out of 5]

LaFleur, Suzanne Threads of Blue (Beautiful Blue World, #2), 203 pgs. Wendy Lamb Books, 2017 (Random House). $16.99 Content: PG.

Mathilde has been separated from the other children in her military mission, so she has to find a way back to them. Using her military I.D. and resourceful ways she gets herself to Eilean, a safe place away from the attacks on her country. As she looks for her military unit, she waits in a refugee camp and gets to see different sides of the war. She learns of her strength and what she needs to do to be true to herself.

Mathilde is a likable character and I like the minor characters as well. I guess my frustration with this book is the warring countries don’t seem defined and so the war seems pointless and there isn’t a good or bad side. The ending is also not very believable or satisfying. I wanted to like this book, but it just didn’t grab me. The content is PG because people are loss to the war.

EL, MS – OPTIONAL. Reviewer, C. Peterson.
http://kissthebook.blogspot.com/2018/...

[Kate Hastings · Rating 3 out of 5]

Grades 4-8. Must read Beautiful Blue World first. I was hoping for clarification about science fiction vs. fantasy, etc.

What I am wondering: Would this have worked better as a historical fiction?
Answer: By having it fantasy there are no pre-assigned good guys or bad guys. (Her point, I think).

In this story of war, children are used to help seek information to help with bombings/troop locations/code-breaking. Other than the fact it was able to get Mathilde out of her city, I am not sure this kid-genius plot worked well. I also never understood how Mathilde was more special than any of her counterparts. She did maintain empathy-- but so did the other kids.

There are no happy endings here, and much of the book seems unresolved. Wars are like that.
I can't put my thumb on it, but I was wanting a little something more from this story. I finished the last book hoping the answers were here and there are only more questions and an emptiness.

[Thistle · Rating 5 out of 5]

A sequel to Beautiful Blue World (reviewed in previous post), this wonderful little book continued the so very realistic look at war and the effects of it. Knowing it was written for readers age 8-12 made this book even better. How skilled the author was to make it both safe for kids and a wonderful read for adults, too. So much was unsaid, yet it was an honest look at the effect war has on families and children.

Beautiful Blue World was about the war itself, and Threads of Blue was about its aftermaths. The main character, a 12 year old girl, was sent on a solo mission and then given leave to try to find her family in her war-torn country.

I LOVED the ending. LOVED LOVED LOVED it. Especially knowing it was meant for young readers, I really appreciated how realistic it was.

The only small criticism I have of both of these books was that sadly they were too short. It took me only two hours to read each one. I wish they had been ten hours long instead.

[Jeni Enjaian · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really wish that I had gotten over my issues with finishing series sooner. I have discovered in this book yet another book that leaves off in a cliffhanger sort of fashion that I simply did not pick up the conclusion in the duology.
LaFleur sets this middle grade series in a fantastical world so real that one could easily swap out place names in the book for actual place names in Europe during the time of WWII. The fantastical setting, however, gives LaFleur the room to explore possibilities of what might happen as well as the ramifications of those possibilities and the effects of war.
I have no idea how she managed to pack so much into such a short book, only 203 pages, but she absolutely stunned me with this book. Several times the narrative took turns that felt like a punch to the gut in the sense that it was not only emotionally devastating but also the thing that had to happen in the plot.
I highly recommend this book and this duology.

[Renee Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

I won this book on Goodreads and Suzanne LaFleur was good enough to send me Book 1 and 2 so I would know what was going on.
"A war took Mathilde away from her family when she was chosen to serve her country, Sofarende, with other children working on a secret military project. " That description alone caught my full attention. This book along with its first one is so good, I thank Mrs. LaFleur for sending it to me.

"But now the other children—including her best friend, Megs—have fled to safety, and Mathilde is all alone, determined to complete her mission." Can you imagine being all alone during this time. Well this book does a good job making You feel you are there. I really enjoyed it. And I look forward to reading other works from Mrs LaFleur.

[Shannon Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this series- This is the second book in the series and it left me with a feeling of hopefulness. When the book starts we are again with Mathilde on a boat escaping her war torn country and heading to where she hopes she can reconnect with her friends in the war effort. She has made some decisions along the way that she worries will estrange her from her group and her best friend Megs. Throughout the story we meet many many characters who have been effected by the war and it gives the readers some very real insight into how war impacts people of all walks of life. Her relationship with Megs and others show how compassionate she is and how "doing the right thing" in war is not always so cut and dry. This is a great text for middle school but one that can be loved by all.

[StarszBooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

This sequel was not what I was expecting at all. I was looking for some crazy conspiracy twist with a corrupted government and spies with secret hidden agendas. I had to get to the very end to see that this story was about something entirely different. This book isn't so much about War but about what war can do to people. It can turn people against their loved ones, it can cause great loss, or it can bring people from the unlikeliest backgrounds together. This story shows how through the fiery skies of pain and despair, little blue threads of hope and love are still there if you remember to look.

[Bailey · Rating 5 out of 5]

A continuation of Beautiful Blue World. LaFleur gives a heartfelt and heartbreaking story, but one that is also filled with hope and strength. At the root of it, Threads of Blue reveals the kindness and humanity that can be maintained in even the darkest of times. I recommend this book, and its companion, Beautiful Blue World, to anyone (child or adult).

[Maria · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was probably one of the most hopeful and sad books I have ever read. This book, a sequel to "Beautiful Blue World" continues our main character's remarkable journey and brings the book in a full circle, tying the beginning and the end of the story together in an utterly seamless and indescribable way. To be honest, I have no words. This book made me feel very deeply and reminded me of how much love and life there will always be in this world, despite hardships and conflicts. No matter what books you like, this is a must-read for anyone. I love it so much and will definitely be rereading it for many years to come!!!

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the sequel to "Beautiful Blue World". It carries on the story of Mathilde, Megs, their siblings and friends. In this story the war continues but the enemy is stretched too thin to hold their captured territories. That allows the united forces of Sofarende and Eilean to fight back. This story is not about battles and war strategy. It's about how innocent friends and families get caught up in war and are hurt because of it. In this last half of Mathilde's story she has the opportunity to travel back to her own ruined country of Sofarende only to suffer terrible heartbreak but also hope for the future. These are well written thoughtful stories but keep your tissues handy!