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The British have landed...again! In this heartfelt coming of age story, Ole Charlie, the club's Guardian Angel since the Book of Charlie narrates another adventure. This one with an international twist. The Pompey Hollow Book Club novels are lighthearted nostalgia about growing up in the heart and the shadows of WWII. The club started when they were all nine, just after the War - and, truth be known, it had little to do with books. The name was a convenience to their club of valor, enabling them to get out of the house for club meetings - even on school nights. Mary Crane has been the club president since 1949 - primarily because she could spell, and hit a home run. Now they are all teens. Antil takes pride in the historic detail of his backdrops - researching the War years and early 1950s rural America - times he grew up in. Many of the main characters are real. The adventures get taller with the telling but they have accurate roots in the times and foundations in truth. The War that killed seventy million people presented in an interesting way so as to encourage a better understanding among today's young adult - making a point we mustn't forget this War and its heroes. In this adventure - book three in the series - we find Mary Crane overseeing the club's volunteering to do the chores for poor old Farmer Parker's farm - watching over his team of horses and some milking cows - bringing the hay down into the barn while he's bedridden with a badly sprained back. In doing so a biplane giving State Fair plane rides goes off course and nearly crashes on his farm. Rushing to the pilot's rescue, the club members unwittingly step into their most spirited adventure yet - this time a need to out trick a professional pickpocket at the State Fair who happens to be in a traveling Sherlock Holmes Players company from England. Jerome Mark Antil is the seventh child of a seventh son - of a seventh son. Born at sunrise it's been told by Mary Holman Antil and Michael C. Antil Sr., that he was the first of eight siblings to stay awake all day and sleep through the night from the moment he was born. "My dad was a baker from the 1929 Great Depression through the post-War 1950s. As a young boy, I'd ride with him all throughout central and northern New York visiting grocers and U.S. Army bases; baseball parks and bread lines as he sold his bread, hot dog buns, pies and cakes. My Dad was 'Big Mike' and I loved listening to his timeless stories and tall tales - stopping at fishing holes along the way. All day rides with Big Mike - his Buick my Steamboat - his grand stories and an entire world at War my Mississippi."

Jerry leaves upstate New York for the first time at twelve.  He travels to Little Rock Arkansas in 1953 to visit an aunt who was about to have a baby.  He sees Jim Crow for the first time, not being allowed to sit in the balcony of the movie house as it was reserved for "Coloreds Only".  Jerry and his freiends hadn't been raised with such predjudice. This bothered the lad - so much so that he got a special visitor one night following his bedtime prayers - divine guidance.  The life maturing experiences he had witnessed in the south were about to be turned into one of the best adventures Jerry and his friends, the Pompey Hollow Book Club have ever had.  The south would never be the same, again!  It just so happened that in Little Rock, on a secret snooping mission for a story, Ernest Hemingway just might be an opportunity for Jerry to get something done.  Hemingway had learned that Eisenhower was readying troops to enter Little Rock to aid in the desegragation of the public schools. He went there for a story.  Jerry was about to be in the middle of it all.Hemingway, Three Angels, and Me tells the unique story of a boy who witnesses the prejudice of the Jim Crow era firsthand and then enlists his friends, family members, and neighbors to help Anna Kristina, one victim of that prejudice. The themes of the novel, including racial prejudice, cultural differences, coming of age, and the effects of war, will resonate with modern readers, both young and old. The moral of this story—that it is never too late to make a difference in other people’s lives—is neatly summarized in the epilogue, yet the novel never feels “preachy.” There aren’t any unanswered questions in the novel, and the readers will feel satisfied by the ending.The novel is generally well structured, and the plot moves at a good pace. The chapter breaks seem deliberate and work well within the novel, often creating a sense of suspense without interrupting the action. In a slightly different vein, the references to the holidays (specifically Thanksgiving and Christmas) serve to make the time frame of the story very clear.The structure of the novel is fairly typical for the genre. The structure of the novel supports the story. In particular, the structure supports Jerry’s telling of the story: it allows him to really reflect on events and memories but also to tell his story in an engaging way. The amount of introspection he offers works well for the genre and is smoothly integrated into the dialogue and the action.The first chapter of the novel does a good job of drawing the readers in; it immediately establishes the character of Jerry, offers a bit of historical context, and makes clear the setting of the novel. It’s also rather intriguing, and I was particularly curious about the reference to guardian angels.

In 1953, the memories of the war were fading but not gone. The kids that stuck together likeglue through the shadows of the war, are now coming of age, growing like weeds with a summer vacationstarting before they become Freshman in high school. They''re dealing with growing pains of the bodyand mind - and they reconnect at the cemetery in the late spring just to catch up. Little did they know they (and you) were in for a year not soon forgotten. Truth be told this is pretty much how it all happened...this is how times were in the day. Book One - Summer Vacation - Book Two - A Halloween Caper -Book Three - a Thanksgiving to Christmas adventure proving that Black Lives Matter to thePompey Hollow Book Club.

This historically set trilogy is packed full of small twists and clever turns; and the central characters are fully developed and highly interesting.The story basically follows a small number of characters growing up in the 1950s. There is a gripping adventure in all three of the books, but, in many ways, this is not a plot-led story. It's all in the characters. And all of the characters even many of the secondary literally jump off the page. The author has his characters talk in a way that is fitting to the time, but, thankfully, it is always understandable, and, as such, only adds to the story.In many ways, this set of books is an ode to the ';good old days'; and I suspect the author remembers them with relish, and not a little yearning. As he says in the intro, ';before there were cell phones and an internetof a time when a full, hot meal at school cost a quarter'. But, although ';history' is a vital part of the story, the author also understands how important it is not to just simply describe the ';historical' setting but, rather, have the characters interact with it in a natural and unobtrusive way. Many authors, who set a book in a different century, seem determined to describe every silver spoon and every woolen tunic. Thankfully, this author has not fallen into that trap. I was particularly impressed by the style of writing in many ways. Many authors tend to describe setting and characters in hefty lumps of text, particularly in historical texts. But this can kill the pacing. Thankfully, this author is wise to this, cleverly mixing up speech, fun happenings and the describing of character and setting. Subsequently, the writingfelt light and not at all like wading through cauliflower-cheese. And, where there is description, it is imaginatively written.To sum up, this is a gem of a trilogy. Most readers, particularly men, will find it gripping; the sort of books to get lost in; the sort of books where every character is the sort of character you wish lived on your own street. Also, I suspect, many will find this story helps them to reflect on family, the simplicity of youth and old school pals lost in time. It's the sort of story you recommend to a pal; that gets tatty corners as it's read so much.