A moving wartime story about children finding courage even when the right choice isn’t always clear
War has a way of stealing childhoods. In Lynda Riggers’s Beneath the Canopy, two twelve-year-olds are forced to navigate the violent impacts of war from hunger to displacement to the frightening reality that doing the right thing is not always simple.
This middle-grade historical fiction follows Johanna and Rein from 1944 to 1945 of World War II in the Netherlands, exploring the complicated choices people make when the stakes are impossibly high. Their experiences offer young readers an accessible introduction to ethical complexity while reinforcing the importance of knowing where you stand, even when you’re scared or your life is at stake.
“We all must do what we can to help those who can’t help themselves.”
Twelve-year-old Johanna lives in Arnhem with her parents, baby brother Luuk, and younger sister Henny when Operation Market Garden brings Allied forces to their doorstep. When the fighting forces the family from their home, Johanna finds herself taking on responsibilities far beyond her years. Meanwhile, in nearby Apeldoorn, Rein is trying to survive the winter of hunger while finding ways to help his neighbors get food. His older brother Pieter’s involvement in the Dutch Resistance draws Rein into increasingly dangerous situations, while his friendship with Johanna gives him another reason to hope for a future beyond the war.
“Occasionally, people are faced with more than they can handle. They become overwhelmed.”
Riggers tells the story through alternating chapters from Johanna’s and Rein’s perspectives, giving readers two different experiences of the same war. The short chapters keep the story moving and make the novel accessible to middle-grade readers, while recurring details offer deeper insight into each character. Johanna’s counting, for instance, becomes a way of imposing order on a world she cannot control, while Rein’s relationship with food reflects both his own hunger and his determination to help others. These details ground the historical events in the children’s everyday experiences, making the war feel immediate and personal as readers come to know Johanna and Rein not as figures from history, but as children much like themselves, their friends, or their own families.
“Counting makes things smaller. Calmer. Count to four and maybe the world wouldn’t spin so fast.”
The novel’s greatest strength, however, is its willingness to introduce young readers to moral ambiguity. The character of Heinrich, a Nazi officer who occasionally demonstrates kindness to Rein, is neither easily excused nor easily dismissed, and Rein has to grapple with the uncomfortable reality that someone can do both harmful and helpful things.
Throughout the novel, Johanna and Rein are repeatedly forced to confront their own limits and the ethical consequences of their choices. Survival sometimes requires compromise, and circumstances can make the “right” decision difficult to identify. Riggers does not pretend these situations always have simple answers. Instead, Johanna and Rein demonstrate that even when circumstances are morally gray, there is still a choice to be made, and standing firm in your values matters.
“Not all Germans are bad. And not all Nazis are Germans. Remember that.”
Beneath the Canopy is an impactful story about courage, resilience, friendship, and holding onto your ethics when fear makes the wrong choice all too tempting. I highly recommend this book to young readers interested in exploring the complexities of war through the experiences of people their own age. The novel includes depictions of war violence, death, starvation, displacement, trauma, and references to sexual violence. Riggers offers a valuable reminder that while survival sometimes requires compromise, we must not compromise our values.
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