Operation Doodlebug

About this book

It’s 1944 and World War II has been going on for five long years. Stan is relieved that his dad is exempt from fighting because he does an essential job.  

But then the unthinkable happens and Dad signs up to go to war. Stan is devastated. And when, after only a few months, the news comes that his father is missing, presumed killed, his world falls apart.  

Already suffering because of the endless air raids and nightly dropping of V1 rockets, Stan can’t accept that his father is gone. So, when a strange piece of doodlebug shrapnel gives him hope that he can find out what really happened to his dad, he embarks on a secret mission to uncover the truth. 

This immersive story of life on the Home Front during World War Two is exciting, inclusive and full of atmospheric, historical detail including the trauma of evacuation and the privations of rationing. 

Not shying away from the reality of bereavement, the book also raises awareness of life lived with a disability, including through Stan’s best friend Billy who has dwarfism. Billy is feisty, loyal, self-sufficient and does not let his physicality define him as a person.