Real Events and Survivor Memories - an Editorial Review of "Beneath the Canopy"

Book Blurb:

Inspired by real events and survivor memories

WWII. Nazi-occupied Netherlands. Two kids. One war.

Johanna runs for her life. As bombs fall and gunfire echoes, an air raid tears her world apart and when the smoke clears, her baby sister is gone. Fleeing with her pregnant mother, Johanna now faces hunger, fear, and a winter that will strip away childhood, test her strength, and end months later with her in the same clothes.

Orphaned by war, Rein steals from a Nazi bakery, runs with friends whose loyalties are shifting, and hides the fact that his brother is in the Resistance. When a German soldier spares his life, Rein is left questioning everything—especially how to stay good in a world gone wrong.

A chance meeting. A shared loaf of bread. And Johanna and Rein’s friendship becomes their greatest act of defiance.

Book Buy Link: https://geni.us/2hCQcbT

Author Bio:

Lynda Riggers writes character-driven fiction about complicated people, difficult choices, and the ways ordinary lives are shaped by extraordinary circumstances.

Her books include Beneath the Canopy, a middle-grade historical novel set in the Netherlands during Operation Market Garden and the Hunger Winter, and The Placeholder. She is also the author of the nonfiction books Voices of Cancer and Voices of LGBTQ+.

A paralegal for more than thirty years, Lynda brings a lifelong fascination with people, their stories, and the complexities beneath what we see on the surface to her writing. Her work has also appeared in Elephants and Tea and Patient Power. An Idaho native, she now writes under the name Lynda Riggers.

Editorial Review:

Title: Beneath the Canopy

Author: Lynda Riggers

Rating: 4.3

Lynda Riggers “Beneath the Canopy” is a historical fiction depicting the brutality of the Nazi, the efforts of the Resistance, and the trauma endured by the civilians. Told through the alternating perspectives of two youngsters, Johanna and Rein, the novel is inspired by Rigger’s in-laws real stories when they were children in the Netherlands during the World War II.

“White-knuckled, Johanna maintained her grip on Henny, the strongbox, and the doll clutched tight under her arm. She flung open the back door and froze. The roar of airplanes overhead drowned out the loud alarm and Henny’s complaints. Countless Royal Canadian Air Force planes marked with blue, white, and red roundels, flying in precise groups of five, blanketed the sky. Each V pattern looked like a wedge of geese—one metal bird flanked by two more on each wing.”

For children like Johanna, the sound of bombing was a daily soundtrack. The atmosphere around her was one of overwhelming noise and confusion. Fear overrode action. The reader learns this through her body gestures. She is looking, noticing and identifying. And because the reader is alongside her, they look, notice, and identify as well. Her experience becomes their experience. And that’s why they cannot go off the story until it does first.

“Rein was trying too hard. He knew this, too, but his desire to fit in, to belong, and to have companionship sometimes overcame him. Rein knew loneliness was a tricky enemy.”

Rein learnt to endure loneliness, a loneliness that wasn’t accidental but one created by the occupation. He even gave it a name- a tricky enemy. Here, the reader sees an extra antagonist to the Nazi. It’s an antagonist that has no face and no uniform, yet carries an agency. The reader fears what this lingering enemy might do to Rein, and what he might become if he gives in. They however know they cannot blame him because they are aware of what happened to his family. Blaming him would be like blaming someone for bleeding after they’ve been cut. That’s the tension around him as a character- understanding why he might fall, without knowing if he will.

“We often try to shield children from darkness. But by glossing over difficult truths, we risk misunderstanding. The crimes of Hitler and the Nazis must not be forgotten, softened, or rewritten. As adults, we have a duty to preserve history truthfully.”

This excerpt frames the novel not as escapism or entertainment, but as a deliberate act of preservation. This is the kind of preservation that takes a stand, in the very act of making known what truly happened. The reader understands that risking misunderstanding goes beyond most arguments which are often about shielding children from feeling sad, burdened, and afraid. And that’s the entire purpose of this novel- to overturn the instinct to shield, and replace it with the duty to preserve history truthfully.

Facts without fiction are accurate but often distant. Fiction without facts is moving, but untethered. By blending them together, the novel achieves something rare- a testament to endurance and resilience, both of which do not necessarily mean winning, but continuing when continuing is the hardest thing to do.

Historical details can be informative- teaching the reader something, or atmospheric- setting the scene. Lynda Riggers “Beneath the Canopy” historical details go beyond the two. They make the past touchable and therefore carryable, something the reader can hold, keep, and pass on. The reader can forget a number, but not a character’s uneven socks. They can forget statistics, but not the birthday cookies eaten by the Nazis. They are objects, and objects outlive explanations. This is precisely why this book lasts beyond most books about the same subject.

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