Gwendolyn Broadmore's Reviews > The Paper Birds

The Paper Birds, by Jeanette Lynn: a compelling historical novel, based on the sisterhood of Canadian codebreakers during World War Two. Graduating high school with top marks, Gemma Sullivan lands a badly needed office job. It's the summer of 1943. Times are bad, money tight, and her aunt is frantic to pay the rent. Aunt Wren has lovingly raised Gemma, since the tragic death of her parents. But very quickly Gemma is shocked to discover she's been hired to work in a top-secret code breaking office. Oh my! Run from a nondescript house, in Mimico, Ontario, the "Cottage" is managed by the eccentric, fearless, and fearsome Miss Fearing, who was brilliantly trained at England's Bletchley Park. Gemma, of course, must sign the Official Secrets Act swearing to tell no one anything, not even her aunt. Silence for a lifetime. As she's is pulled further into wartime intelligence work, she finds that there's much more going on, in this (on-the-surface) sleepy lakeside town then she ever knew. When Gemma, inadvertently, stumbles across a prisoner of war camp, Paper Birds slowly evolves into a potentially dangerous love story. This gripping novel reveals the heartbreaking struggles, and daily sacrifices of ordinary people. Seemingly, so remote from the front lines; still, they're thrust more intimately into the fray than we would ever suspect. Gwendolyn Broadmore, author, Life Came to a Standstill.