Scattergood

Starred review from November 1, 2024
In 1941, against the backdrop of turbulent world events, life unfolds in a tightknit, largely Quaker farming community where friends and family are one and the same. Precocious, math-brained Peggy Mott, a Methodist 12-year-old who presents white, is the youngest student entering high school in rural West Branch, Iowa. Peggy is grappling with best friend Delia's leukemia diagnosis, a first crush (on 16-year-old German Jewish refugee Gunther), a first dance, and changing relationships with friends and family. Refugees from Europe, mostly Jewish, have been staying at the nearby Scattergood Hostel, which is run by Quakers. Bouwman paints a rich, detailed landscape, from mundane farm chores to deeply layered explorations of characters and relationships. Peggy's astute and observant first-person narrative captures her personal journey as she struggles with self-awareness, stages of grief, and her changing perspective as she's exposed to the greater complexities of the world. Equal parts tender and heartwarming and tragically heartbreaking, this story, which will appeal to fans of Lauren Wolk, also offers a realistic depiction of marriage, showing compromises, challenges, and the different ways people care for and love each other. Readers will become deeply invested in the fully developed characters--each flawed and human but doing their best, Peggy included. The power of stories to connect people with others, bear witness, and create joy is an interwoven theme running throughout the text. An engaging, textured, and deeply humane coming-of-age novel. (author's note)(Historical fiction. 9-14)

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December 1, 2024

Gr 4-7-It's 1941, and 12-year-old Iowa farm girl Peggy holds a terrible secret: her cousin and best friend, Delia, has terminal leukemia, and Delia isn't allowed to know. The adults in their lives don't want Delia to spend her last few months of life worrying about death. Rational and hardworking, Peggy endeavors to find a cure for Delia, from researching at the public library to reciting nightly prayers. Meanwhile, the war in Europe feels closer to home as the Quaker residents in town reopen Scattergood School to serve as a hostel for refugees fleeing Nazi persecution. Peggy's curiosity takes her to Scattergood. She winds up befriending some residents, including the Professor, a Dutch chess enthusiast, and Gunther, a handsome German teenager. As Delia grows weaker, Peggy must learn how to continue living in spite of her grief and to support those around her dealing with their own losses. The descriptions of Peggy's life on the farm are seamlessly woven into the narrative, anchoring it to the rural Midwestern setting. The tone is somber overall, peppered liberally with Peggy's wry observations. There are a few melodramatic scenes, including an injury with an axe and an alcohol-induced car accident. Secondary characters are fully developed and are not reduced to moral lessons. Through Peggy's strong support system, Bouwman depicts small town life at its best. Characters are assumed white; the residents of Scattergood read as Jewish. An author's note concludes. VERDICT A powerful coming-of-age story about life, loss, and community.-Hannah Grasse

Copyright 2024 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 30, 2024
At the start of this WWII novel by
Bouwman (Gossamer Summer), almost-13-year-old Peggy makes three secret promises to herself: find a cure for her 14-year-old cousin Delia’s leukemia; become irresistible to “swoony” 16-year-old German-Jewish Gunther, recently arrived at Scattergood, the nearby Quaker hostel for Jewish refugees; and make something exciting happen for herself. Set in a small Iowa farming
community and beginning in June 1941, the novel delves into Peggy’s attempts to pursue those goals while pondering life’s unfairness, including why science can’t give her the answers she needs to help Delia. Especially strong are the depictions of daily farm routines, from the milking of grateful cows to collecting eggs from begrudging chickens. Equally effective is Peggy’s somewhat naive but thoughtful, determined voice as she tries to process Delia’s diagnosis (“Up to six months. Was that how long Delia was going to be sick? Or worse...”) and befriends a gruff Dutch-Jewish professor at Scattergood, who teaches her to play chess while recounting frightening tales from the Old Testament. A steady narrative pace and a variety of secondary characters who inspire questions in Peggy solidify the book’s overall appeal. All characters present as white. Ages 10–up.

March 1, 2025
It's June 1941 in West Branch, Iowa, and twelve-year-old Peggy's summer becomes marked by two secrets. The first is that she's fallen for Gunther, who is handsome, older (sixteen), and, most importantly, from away. A German Jew, Gunther is staying at a local refugee hostel run by Quakers. The second secret, involving Peggy's cousin and close friend, Delia, is more complicated. Delia has leukemia and has at most six months to live, but this reality is being withheld from the sick girl, who believes that she's simply anemic. The events of the summer and fall -- first love, revelations at the hostel against a background of war -- all play out within the context of Peggy's guilt, anger, resentment, confusion, preemptive grieving, and doomed determination to "fix" her cousin. By the end of six months, she has confronted the difficult truth that the distinctions among stories, lies, and history are not as clear as she had assumed. Bouwman's (Gossamer Summer, rev. 7/23) writing is crisp and specific, painting a convincing picture of rural life of the period, and she stays firmly in the consciousness of her spirited, questing, analytical, mathematically inclined heroine. Sarah Ellis

(Copyright 2025 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

Starred review from February 1, 2025
Grades 5-8 *Starred Review* Bouwman takes a seemingly mundane setting (1941 West Branch, Iowa) and crafts a heartfelt bildungsroman that even adult readers will enjoy. Peggy Mott, 13, lives in a rural, predominantly Quaker farming community, where her life consists of farm chores, school, and adventures with her cousin Delia. Or it did, until Delia developed leukemia--a fatal diagnosis in 1941. Meanwhile, the Quaker-operated Scattergood Hostel has started housing Jewish refugees from Europe. The mathematically inclined Peggy, who is told that her cousin is terminally ill while Delia herself remains unaware, is determined to prove that Delia can be cured. Narrative tension tightens as Delia's health fades over the next seven months, alongside the looming threat of a war with Europe. Peggy's character undergoes transformations as she develops a crush on Jewish refugee Gunther, wavers in her faith while seeking answers for Delia's treatment, and is increasingly dishonest with her parents. The unfiltered, yet tightly woven narrative culminates as Peggy comes to understand that everything must get worse before it can get better. This is a timeless coming-of-age novel that breathes new life into the middle-grade WWII genre. The author's note expounds upon the Scattergood Hostel setting and advancements in medical treatments and lists further reading titles.

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