A Child of the Resistance: A Review of The Storks Came Back

Morten Mors is seven years old when the war comes to his small town near Copenhagen, Denmark. His parents worry about the changes the German soldiers will bring to their country, but he’s more concerned about his Great Dane, now elderly and in failing health. But soon, a student at the high school is arrested and disappears. Morten’s parents and older sister start spending more time away from home. The town bully and his family go into hiding, and eventually, Morten is tasked with helping to save his former adversary’s life. Then his best friend and her mother flee to Sweden, for she and her mother, like the bully’s family, are Jewish.

As years pass and the German occupation continues, so do the losses. Morten’s father and the other Danish policemen are deported to a concentration camp. Germans move into the family home. Morten, his mother, and his older sister relocate across the country, but remain part of the Resistance. Morten wants a larger role, but everyone tells him he’s too young. Toward the end of the war, however, he gets his chance and in doing so finally realizes the dangers everyone in his family has faced for years.

Afiena Kamminga’s self-published novel is based on her husband’s experience as the youngest child in a family dedicated to resisting the Nazi occupation of Denmark. The book covers the entire period of the war, from 1940 to the country’s liberation and Germany’s surrender in 1945, through well-chosen vignettes that show a child’s resilience amid great hardship. We see the war through Morten’s eyes, as he describes German soldiers joking with townspeople and the desperation of German women driven from their homes and forced to seek refuge among people who, for good reason, do not want them. Morten observes all of this in a way that recognizes the humanity and tragedy of people caught up in forces beyond their control. His narrative is believably childlike, reflecting the unvarnished honesty of one not yet old enough to hide or distort the truth of what he sees. This novel is an excellent choice for young history buffs as well as for an older elementary or middle school class studying the Second World War.