Michelle Barker's A Year of Borrowed Men (Pajama Press $21.95) arose from her mother's childhood experiences on a family farm during World War II in Pomerania when that Polish area of Europe was part of Nazi Germany.

Written from the perspective of seven-year-old Gerda, it's the true story of survival after Hitler's army "borrowed"; all the men in her family for warfare. Gerda can't fully grasp why three French prisoners-of-war who have been sent to work on their family farm as labourers cannot be invited inside from the barn for just one meal.

Kindness overcomes suspicion as Gabriel, Fermaine and Albert gradually gain the trust of the little girl.

With family photos and an author's historical note, A Year of Borrowed Men suggests to young readers (ages 6-9) that it's not a stretch to change the German word Feinde (enemies) to the German word Freunde (friends). The book is illustrated by Renné Benoit.

"My mother's family had to flee the farm in the spring of 1945,"; says Barker, "and they never returned. They headed southwest, ending up in a town called Ermsleben, in what became East Germany. My mother escaped in 1953, and immigrated to Canada in 1958 to join one of her sisters who was already living in Nanaimo. My grandfather and my uncle did not survive the war.";

"I don't know if the farm still exists but I hope to go and find out. My mother told me that her eldest sister did go back once, after Germans were allowed to travel there. It was still a farm at that point but was somewhat rundown. That would have been quite a long time ago."; 978-1-927485-83-5