The Winter War a Novel by William Durbin. 2008; 231 pages; hardcover; juvenile fiction.
When the Soviet Union invades its neighbor Finland in November, 1939, Marko volunteers. Despite a leg weakened by polio, he works as a messenger on Finland's front line, skiing in white camouflage through the forests. The night missions and the artillery bombardments are terrifying, and so are the odds against the Finns. The Red Army has four soldiers for every Finnish one, and a hundred times the tanks. But as winter sets in, a tank is no help in the snowy forest. A boy on skis is. And the Russians don't know winter the way the Finns do, or what tough guerilla warriors Marko and his comrades are.
In a war where a boy can make a difference, this dramatic story brings home the truth of what it's like to see one's homeland invaded, and the cost of freedom.
