Childhood Favorites...Snow Treasure

Childhood favorites. Everyone has a favorite book or author from childhood. A book that touched them or changed them. A book that perhaps initiated their love of reading and put them on the path of libraries and learning.

Childhood Favorites is a monthly series focusing on beloved books from the past. 

Donald Zolan, Quiet Time.

Snow Treasure by Marie McSwigan. First published in 1942. I read this book as a child and absolutely loved it. In 1940, the Nazi's parachute into a small town in Norway. Based on a true story, the truth may be stretched and embellished, but that did not detract from the fact that this little book was thrilling and exciting.

Peter's uncle Victor and other men in the town realize they need to smuggle out  gold before the Nazi's can discover it. So, being that it's winter, they come up with a plan. The soldiers are already used to seeing the children sledding, so the children begin putting bars of gold on their sleds as they race down the hill. At the bottom of the hill, they build snowmen on top of the gold. Then at night, the gold is taken to Uncle Victor's ship.

The children slowly manage to  move the gold each day. Then the Nazi commander decides they should all go back to school. So the town doctor paints red dots on some of the children and claims it is an epidemic so they need to be quarantined. He also says the health children need to stay outside playing so they don't get sick. The children are then able to continue moving the gold.

Peter, Michael, Helga, and Lovisa are terrific. I so appreciate now that Helga and Lovisa were leaders in this adventure, just as much as the boys were.

Even 40 years later, this story was enjoyable to me.

What about you? What is one of your childhood favorites?

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