Daisy Wilder lives on
the Hawaiian island of O’ahu (the spelling the author uses and is correct). She
lives in an oceanfront shack with her mother, who is suffering a deep, deep
depression. Daisy works on a nearby ranch to support them, and she loves
working with the horses. Other than the people she works with, she has no other
social life.
On the morning of
December 7, 1941, Daisy has “borrowed” one of the ranch’s finest stallions,
Moon, for a run on the beach. He is coal black with a gently fierce heart. As
the Japanese planes roar overheard, headed to Pearl Harbor, Moon bolts and runs
away.
Terrified for the animal,
Daisy looks for him, but to no avail. She needs to get back to the shack to be
with her mother. Her mother is oblivious, but Daisy is terrified. Will there be
a land invasion? There have been rumors. What about Moon? What will the
Japanese do to him if they find? What about her mom?
As the day progresses,
Daisy’s anxieties dim, but never go away (and they will stay with her for the
next four years). She tries, in vain, to find Moon. There is talk of relocating
all civilians to the Mainland. She knows she has to get her mother to
California to be with a relative, but Daisy plans on staying on the island.
After searching for
Moon, who seems to have just disappeared, Daisy must tell the ranch’s owner
what has happened. Hal Montgomery is beside himself, accusing Daisy of stealing
and fires her. She is devastated.
Mr. Montgomery’s son,
Walker, comes home before the bombs fall to heal from a severe concussion.. He
is a navy pilot, but now it’s all hands on desk. He is stationed aboard the USS Enterprise. And we all know what
happens when boy meets girl.
Wanting to do her part
for the war effort, and since she is out of a job, Daisy signs up for the
Women’s Air Raid Defense. The military is looking for twenty intelligent women
to help provide air defense for Hawaii. Daisy passes all the tests and is made part
of the team. There she finds something she has never had before, female
friendship. She must learn to navigate these are much as she learns to navigate
the radar system.
Throughout the entire
war, Daisy never loses hope of finding Moon and is always on the lookout.
The details about those
early days in radar were fascinating and author Ackerman does a wonderful job
balancing too much information and teaching me something new.
Thanks to Ackerman’s
vivid descriptions of the Hawaiian Islands, the ocean, the fish, the salty air,
reading “Radar Girls” is like taking a beach vacation without getting
sand in your underwear. It’s also a boy-meets-girl-loses-boy-gets-girl story
set against the beauty of Hawaii and the fears and the uncertainties of World
War II. Therefore, “Radar Girls” receives 5 out of 5 stars in Julie’s
world.
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