Review of "The Night Flyers," by Elizabeth McDavid Jones

 Review of

The Night Flyers, by Elizabeth McDavid Jones, ISBN 0439389461

Five out of five stars

Raising and training pigeons for the war effort

 Pam Lowder is a young girl living on the coast of North Carolina in 1918. Together with her father, they raise very high quality homing pigeons. Her father has been drafted into the American Army and he is now somewhere on the Western Front in Europe. Using special training skills, Pam and her father have trained their pigeons to fly at night, something extremely valuable when pigeons are to be used to send important battlefield messages. Such pigeons are called “night flyers.”

 A strange man by the name of Arminger comes to town and he has a German accent. He expresses a high interest in Pam’s pigeons, offering her the equivalent of a fortune for them. Since there is a war scare over Germans, many in town think that Arminger is a German spy. When a few of Pam’s pigeons disappear, she becomes convinced that Arminger has taken them, so she goes off to investigate by herself.

 This is an YA novel where some historical context is necessary, and that is supplied in a 6-page supplement at the end. While it is well done, it is also after the fact. Such a primer would have been better placed at the beginning of the book, that way some of the actions will make much more sense. Not only the anti-German hysteria in the United States, but also the fact that most Americans at the time stayed in their small local communities and knew little about other people and their backgrounds. That explains a great deal of the ways in which the people act towards each other. Despite that, it is still an entertaining story that teaches a bit of history.