My Secret War : The World War II Diary of Madeline Beck

Dear America

by Madeline H. Beck

Fearing the worse and hoping for the best while her father is overseas, Madeline gets a harsh taste of reality when she spots a German U-boat off the coast of her small beach town.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Middle Grade, Young Adult, Historical, Childrens, World War II

165 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

Reviews

[Deacon Tom (Feeling Better) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a wonderful little book about WWII’s impact on a young girl’s life. Her ups and downs, including young love make this a special experience.

What I enjoyed the most was how her and a good friend took on the challenge of guarding the Long Island coastline.

I recommend.

[Lily · Rating 4 out of 5]

Note: Originally read sometime in elementary or middle school then read again in 2024 :)

[Ana Mardoll · Rating 5 out of 5]

My Secret War (World War II) / 0-590-68715-8

"My Secret War" paints a wonderful portrait of America in 1941. Madeline cultivates a close friendship with her German-Jewish neighbors, and learns to tread respectfully around the fear and sadness they harbor. She is distraught when she learns of the Japanese-American citizens put in American camps for 'observation' and reminds her classmates to take seriously the meaning behind the president's wife's exhortation to not allow America to be divided by race or religion. Madeline organizes a club to collect scrap, metal, and stockings for the war effort, and tries to diligently answer her father's letters, hoping that a telegram won't arrive with news of his injury or death.

Madeline is, in many ways, a perfectly ordinary girl. She frets that the pretty girls at school don't acknowledge her. She crushes on her young boy friend, regaling him with tales of her father's bravery and heroism, but sometimes worrying that if he starts to like her in "that way" then she suddenly won't be free to be herself anymore. She is relieved when she finds that she can be a "girlfriend" AND a "girl friend" without having to sacrifice her personality or free spirit.

"My Secret War" takes a long and intriguing look at a different aspect of World War II - those who stayed behind in America. The women who joined factory jobs; the girls who initiated scrap metal drives and stocking collections. The children who lived knowing that fathers and brothers might not be homing home. The people who had to chose whether to fear or love their new European refugee neighbors and their old Japanese-American neighbors, and the sad consequences when the wrong choice was made. Through all this, fictional Madeline is strong, vibrant, and touchingly realistic.

~ Ana Mardoll

[Kelsey Hanson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not a huge fan of Mary Pope Osborne's Dear America books I'm afraid. I personally think that she goes through them too quickly, not giving her characters time to develop. I didn't care for Maddie. I thought she was a bit superficial with no real personality. As a kid who grew up being the victim of bullying due to the popular girls, I don't really enjoy stories where the girl tries so hard to be friend with the bratty popular girls who torment her. It's a small detail, but it ruined Maddie for me. Also, it could be because I'm reading this after reading One Eye Laughing, One Eye Crying, which is another Dear America book that is written from a Jewish girl's perspective so it seems like Maddie didn't really do that much compared to her European counterpart.

[Diana · Rating 3 out of 5]

While not a favorite in the series, I think it is a good way to show how Pearl Harbor affected those back at home and the fear that many had when we officially went to war. I love these books and even though they're historical fiction I feel they're a great way to introduce younger readers to history. Especially the topics not covered in classes.

[AniMaiL0vr · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a good book!

[Erin Becker · Rating 4 out of 5]

A more compelling story than Early Sunday Morning (another Dear America book covering the same period). I enjoyed the main character - she read realistically to me as a young teenage girl - obsessed with boys, her appearance, and making friends. The author's choice to set the story in a boarding house gave her the opportunity to include an interesting range of characters as a "family unit" for Madeline, including Jewish German refuges. The author does very briefly treat harassment of people of Japanese ancestry, including mentioning internment camps. However, she also includes a anti-Japanese racial slur without comment, which could have been a teaching moment. If reading this with your child, I recommend reading alongside the Journal of Ben Uchida to build understanding of the experience of Japanese-Americans during WW2.

[Edissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is probably my favorite Dear America Diaries i have read so far. It’s so funny, cute, and interesting!

[Becky Guldin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my favorite book as a kid, so I wanted to reread it. Did not disappoint.

[Lindsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was one of my all time favorites as a fourth-grader. Spies, WWII, crushes, and one of the best (most real and strong and just GAH YES) female protagonists in my reading life up to that time.

[Eve (◍•ᴗ•◍)❤ (Semi-active) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love the sense of family in this story.

[Sadie · Rating 5 out of 5]

My Secret War was a very good book. It is about a girl named Madeline Beck whos father is fighting in World War 2. She meets a boy named Johnny and they become friends. When something scary and life threatening happens to Madeline she realizes that what she and Johnny decided to do made a big footprint in helping end the war.

[Laurie McClure · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting details and slogans of the war I had never heard. It's emotional, yet funny. A quick read for me, and enjoyable.

[Autumn Fortier · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this because something was mentioned in the book, Summer of My German Soldier, that reminded me of this book—the Nazi saboteurs who landed on a beach in Long Island during World War 2. They were caught before they could do any damage. This is a good book. It follows Madeline "Maddie" Beck and her friends as they run the K3F(Kids Fight For Freedom) club on the home front to help the war effort. Maddie and her mom are living in a boarding house in Long Island, New York, while Maddie's dad is stationed on an Air Carrier in the Pacific right before and during the early part of America's entry into WW 2, after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. I don't know if this has dawned on me before, even the first time I read this book, but that happened before Hawaii was a US state. It was owned by the USA, though, which is why it was seen as an act of war when Japan bombed it.
Maddie and her mom become a sort of family with the five other people who live in the boarding house. Mrs. Rosenthal and her 19-year-old daughter, Clara, are Jews who escaped from Germany just before the start of the Holocaust. Mrs. Rosenthal was very traumatized by what happened to her husband before leaving Germany, and became kind of like a child. Clara has to be strong and take care of her mother. She loses the ability to cry. At the start of the book, Maddie has no friends in her new home, so the 13-year-old befriends Clara. Theo is the knowledgeable son of the woman who owns the boarding house. He is a few years older than Clara, and the two become a couple during the book. He is very kind to people, despite his rough fisherman exterior. He doesn't treat Maddie as a child, which she really appreciates. He never went to High School, but he knows a lot about the war and politics. If it weren't for his limp, he would have joined the military. Instead, he joins a group to help on the home front. If the states got invaded, he would be part of the fight.
Theo's mom, Mrs. Hawkins, is a hard-of-hearing lady who does the cooking. Her bad hearing leads to at least one comedic moment. Clara helps her in the kitchen in exchange for her and her mother's room. The last person living there is Miss Burke, a retired teacher and chatterbox who seems to know everyone. Sometimes, she doesn't think things through, but she does care about others and has some good suggestions for the K3F club. All of them eat supper together each night, until Maddie's mom starts working at night as a welder.
At first, Maddie is very concerned about material things, thinking that if she shortens her skirts or gets new clothes, she will get friends. But by the end of the book, she cares mainly about the people in her life. She mentions God and going to church, but doesn't do much else but pray. Even then, she mentions wanting to pray to her dad or Mrs. Roosevelt. I didn't like that. There is a sweet romance in the book between Maddie and her best friend, Johnny (after she makes friends).
The secret war part doesn't happen until the last quarter of the book(excluding the Epilogue and the historical info and photos at the end). It happens after Maddie finds out her dad was injured, quits the club, and gets upset with Johnny because she's depressed. She walks on the beach and sees something the Germans don't want her to see. She is told they are the Coast Guard and not to tell anyone what she saw. But after a few weeks of anxiety, she finally makes up with Johnny and asks for his help. What they discover leads them to believe she really was caught by the Nazis! After asking Theo what he would do hypothetically(saying it was for the club), Maddie makes an anonymous call to the FBI to tell them. Later, it's in the newspaper, but Johnny and Maddie know they can't tell anyone without risking being thought of as liars. Maddie and her mom were very upset about Maddie's dad, which also added to Maddie's worries. But they find out that he's okay, but can't rejoin the fight for a while. They are, of course, overjoyed, but it means they have to move to California. It is very hard to say goodbye to their friends and 'family', and Maddie believes they will never see anyone there again or continue writing after a while. The epilogue proves she was wrong. When she's a young adult, Maddie goes back to Long Island, and she and Johnny marry a few years later, to nobody's surprise. Theo and Clara also marry and name their first daughter after Maddie.
As always, there is historical information about the time period in the back, with pictures!

[Courtney · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I've always been interested in WWII history, I've never been particularly interested in the WWII American Homefront. Perhaps it all started with the inexplicable seething dislike I've had for the American Girl character Molly McIntire since childhood. In any case, I had surprisingly high hopes for this Dear America title. I've seen the cover for years before I read it, the excerpt on the back actually makes the book sound fairly exciting, and I really enjoyed Mary Pope Osborne's other DA book, Standing in the Light: The Captive Diary of Catharine Carey Logan, Delaware Valley, Pennsylvania, 1763.

This book was a pretty big let down. Maybe my first mistake was reading this one directly after One Eye Laughing, the Other Weeping: The Diary of Julie Weiss, which focuses on a Jewish girl trapped in Nazi occupied Austria in the early stages of WWII. Compared to the bleak and haunting experiences faced by Julie in One Eye Laughing, Maddie's homefront shenanigans felt frankly pointless. Maddie had no real discernible personality, aside from stereotypical "peppy 1940s adolescent". This was also a letdown because I felt that the protagonist in Mary Pope Osborne's other book Standing in the Light was very well written and had a lot of depth. Also, the "romance" in this story was extremely childish and felt tacked on to the story. I rolled my eyes so hard when in the epilogue Madeline and Johnny stay together forever and eventually get married. Because of course your first boyfriend that you meet at age 13 is the one.

I am probably being overly harsh on this book. It wasn't completely terrible and it did have some interesting parts. However, it was a big let down for me and I am glad to be moving on to other books in the series.

[Megan Salentine · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was so good! Loved the story line and the epilogue!!! We are learning about WWII in school, so I really related to this alot! And part of this was in real life!

[Jenna Vargas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Life without her hero at home, a little girls dad off at war fighting for their country's safety. This book is about a young girl and her struggles in everyday life worrying about her dad. She goes through her first crush with her neighbor friend Johnny. The young girl waits and waits everyday for her dad to send letters to her talking about how he is doing and how he will be fine and not worry. She works so hard to look out for her mom, and make sure she will be okay. She writes down in his diary about every single thing that happens in her life. Every single day is a worry waiting for her father to come home.

This book got my attention because I like reading books about the past.I recommend this book for people who like history and the side story's on the war. People should read this because it will bring you back and see what people had to go through while their love ones were gone fighting for them.

Find out what happens, does her dad make it home? Does her crush crush back on her? This book will keep you interested, and waiting for what happens next in the young girls life, during the horrible times of the World War 2.

[Claire M.]

My secret war is about a girl named Madeline and her living through world war 2 while her dad is fighting in war. Madeline goes through many obstacles with her friends Clara and Johnny and all the problems that come with having a dad in the war.

I did not enjoy this book. I felt like there was not much to it. The story line is weak and while I was reading I was waiting for something good to happen but it never came. There were no major problems that she had to over come. When one of the only semi-big problems they just glazed over it like nothing happen. I did enjoy Madeline as a character and how she acted. Over all I would not recommend this book.

[Brenda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thought this book was well written, thought out & researched. With it being a work of historical fiction of course some of the facts are changed a little for it to fit in with it being from an American girl's perspective of WW2. Even though the book is geared to 3-6 graders I still enjoyed the book since gave the impression that it could have been any girl that grew up in that time.

[Sharon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Naomi and I read My Secret War aloud. Truly, one of my favorite titles in the "Dear America" series.

[Margie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quick read but well worth it.

[Maddly Peculiar · Rating 2 out of 5]

welcome to episode #538 of madeline needs to read book descriptions before aquiring a book

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 for My secret warI rounded up

Thoughts and Plot

Madeline Beck is a 8th grade student living in Long Island New York when Pearl Harbor is bombed and the US enters the 2nd World War. She describes herself as a thick waisted (probably not true), gap toothed (gap between her front teeth), style-less young lady (because her skirt is longer, has no wide belt or penny loafers) who is generally shy and has a hard time making friends. Her dad is off on a carrier ship somewhere in the pacific leaving her and her mother to room at a boarding house.

She does manage to make one friend, Johnny, a cute boy from her class who is keenly interested in the war, which Mad talks about as her father is in the military. The first bit of the book is pretty much her talking about day to day life, trying to make friends, trying to not be jealous when Johnny goes out with someone else, sort of gossiping about the people she lives with. When the war breaks out, Madeline begins to shine. She and Johnny form a club at school to help with the war effort. They volunteer to watch for airplanes, collect tin, arrange exercise classes for students, and patrol the beach. It's all a bit boring really. that is until Madeline gets word that her father has been injured and is in hospital somewhere, critically injured. She has a bout of melancholy and drops everything in favour of sitting by the window and worrying. No club, no Johnny.

Eventually she stumbles across an enemy plot to sabotage factories when she and Johnny find German supplies hidden on the shore. Johnny and her obviously get back together for more war time antics. Spoiler alert? too late! That was probably the most interesting bit of the book.

A small point of criticism is, rain in January. New York does get a fair bit of snow during the winter. So unless it was unreasonably mild, Maddy and her friend should have been walking through snow, not riding their bikes everywhere with a bit of a nippy wind.

The book includes a brief epilogue as well as some historical notes and pictures.

Conclusion

It was okay. Nothing too mind blowing with a slow start and a quick (and more interesting) ending. Not my favorite from the Dear America series. What would normally take me an evening to read ended up stretched throughout 5 days due to my lack of interest. Might be a good read for people who enjoy the American side of how they got into WWII and how things progressed an their home front.

Age range: middle school and up
Content: has mentions of hand holding and the occasional kiss, if that concerns anyone.

[Andrea Centeno · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book was about a girl names Madeline Beck. She grew up in the time of World War 2 in Long Island, New York. Her father was in the navy and was in the Pacific. She was really worried about her father, so she followed everything about the war. She would read the newspaper and talk to anyone who knew anything. She had a friend named Johnny Vecchio, and she would tell him everything. She wanted to impress him because he was very interested in the topic, and sometimes she would lie or exaggerate the truth in order to impress him. One day her father got critically injured. She goes to the beach at night when civilians aren't allowed at the beach. She kept doing this, and one night a man stopped her and told her not to say anything or she will be arrested. Another day a man told her that she wouldn't want to be arrested for treason. A black car purposefully tried to run her over. She told Johnny, and they checked it out. They went to the beach and found a bunch of Nazi things, and they reported it to the FBI. In the newspaper, it said that there were Nazis in Long Island, and an anonymous caller informed them and stopped a potential attack. Madeline and Johnny made a club for kids called the K3F, and they did things to help the war effort and the soldiers.

I liked this book because it showed me another side of the war. This was a world war, so reading what happened here in the states interested me. You got to read about the worries when Pearl Harbor was bombed when the Japanese declared war on the U.S, and when Hitler and Mussolini declared war on the U.S 4 days after the Japanese did. I got to learn more about the effects the war had on people here in America. I got to learn more about the U-boats coming to America and attacking us. I also got to learn more about the Japanese attacking the West. I also liked this book because felt better connected to the character because it was her first-hand account. She was able to describe her feelings, better than someone writing a book about her can. She wrote as soon as she experienced it, so the events and feelings were fresh in her memory. I felt connected to the character. I could put myself in her shoes and imagine what she would be feeling. I find it very interesting learning about the different aspects of the war, the bombing, and how life was affected in the U.S. While I was reading I felt better connected to the character. I could put myself in her shoes and picture what her life was like.

I recommend this book if you are interested in World War 2, diaries, and learning about World War 2 in America.

[Kat Saunders · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had high hopes for this one because Mary Pope Osborne wrote Standing in the Light, one of my favorites in the series. However, My Secret War was just okay. I have mixed feelings about this one.

Maddie clearly undergoes a transformation as the book progresses, and I thought the book did a nice job of handling her budding relationship with Johnny. It felt very true to early dating experiences when you're not sure how the other person feels about you. They were super cute together.

But Maddie is honestly super annoying in this diary. She's using her father's military service for social clout and has a pretty inflated sense of importance. The good work she's doing seems more about drawing attention to herself than really helping the war effort. Ultimately, though, she realizes this about herself and does change. While Maddie is not a particularly likable narrator, her self-absorption feels true to life.

I have to kind of roll my eyes about the plot line with the "beach discovery." If one good thing came from it, at least Maddie couldn't brag about it! But I tend to dislike the books in this series where the narrator somehow plays a huge role in a historical event.

This book also wrapped up way too soon. It felt like Osborne didn't know how to write an ending and just rushed it. This is a critique I've made about other books in the series. I could have done without the epilogue where we find out she marries Johnny. JUST BECAUSE A NARRATOR HAS A LOVE INTEREST IN THE BOOK DOES NOT MEAN THEY NEED TO GET MARRIED. This is one of the most irritating things about the series as a whole.

I was surprised that the book is carefully measured in how the enemies are discussed. Maddie and her mother both think it's wrong that Japanese Americans have been imprisoned. However, parents should know that Maddie still uses a slur; it would be worth warning a child that this isn't acceptable language. Otherwise, however, this has aged pretty well. I'm always going to have complicated feelings about romanticizing war and nationalism, but I think Maddie realizes that war is not glamorous at all by the book's end.

Dead parent count: Despite a scare, 0.

[Emelin]

This book is a dairy of Madeline Beck. The author uses the first person of this character to hep us understand more on how she is feeling and what is happening. The purpose of the story I think, was to to teach readers about Wold War II. It takes place in 1941 and 1942 on Long Island. Madeline, the main character, is a fourteen year old that kept moving constantly because her father is a military officer and was moving from base to base. Her dad was no longer "on assignment to just 'safeguard' the Pacific anymore. Now he was there to fight. Her thoughts turn from trying to fit in with the popular girls in her eighth grade class to doing something for the war effort. With her friend, Johnny Vecchio, Madeline organizes the "Kids Fight for Freedom" Club at school. As their classmates get involved in collecting scrap metal and gathering supplies for the servicemen's club, romance blossoms between Johnny and her. They soon volunteer as sky-watchers, participate in a blackout, and look for German U-boats along the coast. Then, a telegram arrives bringing news that Madeline's father had been critically wounded. She was devastated. Knowing that she must "face the darkness," she began to take night walks along the beach, even though it's against the law. She happens upon two foreign sounding strangers who claim to be coast guard members. On further investigation, however, she and Johnny discover a secret cache of explosives and Nazi uniforms buried in the sand. An anonymous call to the FBI by her, resulted in the capture of the four Nazi men planning to destroy industrial plants and transportation networks. News came that her father is alive and recuperating in a San Francisco hospital. She and her mother make plans to join him. She was so happy and excited to see her father again, but yet sad to be leaving Johnny and her "family unit" at the boarding house. I highly recommend this book because it was an interesting and very educational on WWII. I, in my opinion, rate this book a five out of five.

[Alexa Blart, Library Cop · Rating 3 out of 5]

For such a short Dear America, this one (authored by Mary Pope Osborne, author of one of my favorites in the series, Standing in the Light) packs a punch. Maddie is a likable heroine whose initial focus at the start of the book (being accepted into the circle of popular girls at her new school, and weather Johnny Veccio likes her more than the most popular girl in school) takes a dramatic shift when the United States enters World War II. Especially after the previous book, whose protagonist was a bit of an unrepentant brat at the start, it was refreshing to see Maddie, who is thirteen, be a normal mistake-making kid who's also kind and conscientious at heart, and whose mistakes, often as not, come from a place of wanting to do good and stumbling, as we all do.

The book also nicely encapsulates the fear, uncertainty, and paranoia that often accompanied life on the home front—the days in which Maddie and her mother are waiting for news of their husband and father, critically injured in the Battle of the Coral Sea, are dragged down with grief and hopelessness and a desire to retreat from everyday life. There are moments of levity throughout, however, like a cute little budding romance between Maddie and her friend Johnny, the formation of a kids' club to help the war effort, and then all of a sudden, WHAM, the war is at our main characters' front door in a subplot that, for all that it feels a little sensational, is exciting and scary—though I appreciated that, despite Maddie and Johnny's heroics, Osborne is careful not to end with them being lauded as heroes, but with the sober reality that they can never reveal what happened to anyone else.

A solid offering of a World War II book! I know there's at least one more on this subject (the Pearl Harbor book, which I remember from childhood!), but, in my opinion, this one is a huge improvement over its predecessor.

[Jahnavi · Rating 4 out of 5]

My rating: 4.3 out of 5

This book took me on an emotional roller coaster. The love and gratitude that we feel after difficult times were so vividly and clearly portrayed through the eyes of Madeline Beck. I have read many books about WW2 but most of them were set in Germany and it did me great good to read about the war from the point of view of someone living in the United States. The story itself was beautifully woven together with very memorable events and characters. This book showed the face of the world going through difficult times and of the people holding on the hope, which itself is a fragile thing.

All the character I met during the story was truly remarkable and their back stories were amazing. Especially I loved how Clara was able to hold on to hope and be happy despite the grief that haunted her and followed her around. I found this book as a must read because it will show the cruelties and hardship people go through when countries are at war with each other. It also give us a raw view to the feelings and situations of people who have family members away in the army fighting for their country in the war. It also talks about childhood anxieties and that fear of having no friends while in a new school. It talks about leaving things behind and moving on with life when circumstances commands it.

This book is all about kindness, love and among all things hope. I highly recommend it to all readers young and old.

Happy reading!


Jan

[Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my second Dear America reread as an adult, after loving the series as a kid, and this novel was exactly the book I was hoping it would be! Maddie's father is in the Navy during WWII and she and her mother, who move often, live in a boarding house in Long Island, New York.

The book breezed by with its suspense and the range of emotions that Maddie feels throughout. I loved the created family the boarders found in each other. The light teen romance was sweet, and I especially appreciated that the relationship was built on friendship first. I thought a lot about the plot point of Maddie & Johnny's "playing war" and how Maddie bragged about her father's war efforts, only to ultimately realize that war wasn't something to make light of. That felt authentic; I'm sure that's something that kids of that time reckoned with, but while I think Maddie's grief about her playfulness made sense in the story, I think now about how children growing up during traumatic times have to cope somehow and deserve to be able to play in any way they can!

While I'd recommend supplementing this book with others that represent more diverse experiences during this time, and of course filling in the blanks with nonfiction, I still think this book holds up and nicely represents what life was like for some people eighty years ago, and I'd recommend it to kids today.

[Elisa Foreman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great historic fiction put out by the Great America series. I love that these books tell stories through diary entries, which makes it feel like we have a window to the characters soul as they share not just the happenings of their lives, but their feelings. This particular book follows Madeline a young girl in the United States who experiences life of WWII America while her father is serving in the Navy. The book does a great job shedding light on what life was like back in those times where women went to work in factories, something her mother did, and neighbors collected all kinds of scraps (metal, rubber, etc.) to help with the war effort. At one point it even shared how there was beach patrol on our coasts to make sure we were not infiltrated by the enemy… you’ll have to read it for the details.

This will be a book I share with my daughters as they mature and truly learn about the war, so they can get a better sense of what life was like for Americans at that time. “The Fences Between Us” is a different perspective from the same series also covering WWII America. It tells a different perspective though and both should be enjoyed.