I Don't Get It: The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips

As a kid, I read every book about World War II my library owned.  Nonfiction was OK, but I preferred fiction, so I read about kids in Greece, Germany, Holland, Denmark, Hungary, Italy, Russia, Japan, China, and England.  I'm still partial to kidlit set then, so when I saw somewhere a recommendation for Amazing Story Of Adolphus Tips by Michael Morpurga,  I put it on my list.

All the pieces of the book worked well.  There is a tiny framing device about a lonely kid who spends holidays with his grandparents, and provides solace when the grandfather dies.  There's the evacuee who makes friends with the local girl.  There's the American soldiers who bring hot dogs and candy to the children.  There's the father whose absence makes him seem distant even when home on leave.  The the miraculous reunion after fifty years on opposite sides of the Atlantic.  And there's the eponymous cat who gets lost and then found after all is lost.  The prose was lucid and engaging.  But they didn't really seem to hang together as a complete book.  C+