What I Saw and How I Lied By Judy Blundell 

What I Saw and How I Lied by Judy Blundell is a great historical fiction book for all middle school and early high school students. This book is a very well crafted piece of historical fiction that teens would not be bored by. Blundell discusses World War II, the Holocaust, Post-War America, and how it is to be a young person going from being a child to an adult.

One of the main themes of this novel is how the main character, Evie, cannot wait to be grown up. Like most teens, fifteen year old Evie, can't wait until she is done with puberty. Young readers will certainly be able to relate to how it is to be in her position and they will be able to relate to the many instances where Blundell mentions Evie's self-conciousness. A way that Blundell reinforces this idea of wanting to be grown up is through clothing. Evie longs to be able to wear fancy dresses and shoes and go out to dances like a grown woman but her mother will not allow her to dress up in the clothes that she wants to wear. A turning point is when in the middle of the novel her mother gives her her first grown up dress which is around the same time that she becomes more confident and mature.

Another aspect of this book that young readers will be able to relate to is adversity. Evie's father walked out on her and her mother before she was even born but her step-father, Joe Spooner, becomes a part of making her home life have some sense of normalcy when he meets and marries her mother when she is still very young.

The twist in this captivating tale is when Joe comes back home from Europe and the family goes on a trip to Palm Beach, FL. It is there that Evie, her mother and Joe encounter Peter Coleridge, a veteran that fought in the same company as Joe in WWII that is the key to a big secret of Joe's unfolding. The irony is that Joe, who was so beneficial in Evie's life and was the cause of so much happiness for her and her mother, is harboring a huge secret that almost threatens to tear their tight-knit family apart.