Discovering WWII Mysteries with Nell Branum

Nell Branum's Heroes on the Homefront Series is an adventure through WWII History and a look at how our past shapes our future.

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Valerie - Welcome to Book Worthy, where we talk about the heart behind the books your kids are reading. Children's books range from birth to YA, so we have a lot of shelf space to cover. Today, we're talking with Nell Branham. Nell is a former elementary school librarian and the daughter of both a World War II paratrooper and a real-life Rosie the Riveter. So when her love of books meets her love of history, you mix it all up with a heart for adventure. Her middle-grade series Heroes on the Home Front Mysteries for ages eight to 12 was born. Currently with two titles in the series, we follow sixth grader Riley Abercrombie as she discovers a few real-life mysteries that might shed a little light on World War II history and make a few friends along the way. Welcome to Bookworthy, Nell.

Nell - Thanks for having me.

Valerie - It is a joy to have you. I've enjoyed reading your books. I am a big history buff myself. And so it's kind of fun to see how other people see history, too. Well, to start us off, we're going to start with our random question of the week. And since we are in the new year, we're going to start with, do you make New Year's resolutions?

Nell - That's a tough one. Sometimes I do. Sometimes I have a word for the year, this year is still, believe it or not, still, S-T-I-L-L. And another thing I'm doing this year I haven't done before is I'm reading my Bible through. I've done that before, but this year I'm reading it in my Chronological Bible. So, I'm reading it through history, which mixes up the profits with the stories, and so I've really thoroughly enjoyed that this year.

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Valerie - I really enjoy reading through the Bible in that way. Also, what is it? We kind of get lost in these pockets that they're set up in with wisdom and grace and all that. But to kind of know that Daniel and Jeremiah and Ezekiel, they were all at the same time, is just, yeah, it's hard to like, I don't realize that when you're reading through that. And so it's really neat to read it in that historical context for sure. I kind of go between making resolutions and not making resolutions. I usually give myself the month of January to decide what I'm doing rather than get pushed into doing something on January 1st. So, I can get a little overwhelmed.

Nell - Well, it takes a minute to settle down after the holidays and all of that and figure out where you need to be after that.

Valerie - It does. What do I want to accomplish this year? I don't know. I wasn't my, um, oldest is a 17-year-old. And so he's like, I don't know what I want to be when I grow up. I'm like, hi, I'm an adult, and I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up. So welcome to adulthood. Too fun. Well, now tell us a little bit about your books, the Heroes on the Homefront.

Nell - Yeah, we have two books that came out together at the beginning of the series, and they are, I wouldn't call them true historical fiction, they are contemporary kids with mysteries that are rooted in the World War II home front era. So Keep Them Flying focuses on stories of Rosie the Riveters, those women who worked in the factories and also did many, many, other things that when the men left to go to war in World War II, they were able to take over those kinds of jobs and help in their own way to win the war. And I've had the privilege to meet many of those Rosies through involvement with my parents, particularly my mother. And so it's kind of a compilation of some of the stories that are

That I have come across. Riley wins a contest because her great-grandma was a Rosie and made B-25 airplanes. And so she can make a trip that ends up getting her into a mystery that has to do with World War II. You've read it. But she and her quirky grandma, Susie, get to go on this trip and meet a new friend, Marcus, who they figure out that the police are looking at the wrong person for the crime that occurred during the weekend. And so they set about to set the record straight and reveal who the real person is, which gets them into all kinds of adventures and messes. And then book two, if you want to know that one, was also inspired by true events. It's not necessarily Rosie the Riveters; it's more of POWs, prisoners of war, who were in the United States during the war. A lot of people don't know what the Allies do with their prisoners when they have them. They put them on ships and brought them to America, at least several hundred thousand of them. And so all across the country, there were these POW camps, and one of them was in a real town, not far from my hometown in Alabama. And I, when I discovered this several years ago, I thought, my goodness, I need to go see about that. Well, the camp is gone, but there's a museum that has all kinds of information. And I discovered that the thing about this town, Aliceville, is that they had reunions starting about 50 years after the end of the war. They began to have reunions with three groups of people. The former prisoners, German prisoners who had been there, the former guards who had guarded the German prisoners, and the townspeople of Aliceville. And this time, many of the German guests stayed in the homes of the Aliceville residents, which I just thought was a really cool story. That is the inspiration for Friends in Strange Places, book two.

Valerie - They're a very interesting pair of events that, you know, like I said, heroes on the home front, rather than we seem to have a lot of books about World War II, which there are so many amazing stories of all the men and women that were in service over in Europe. But to kind of take it home and know that a lot was going on here is kind of a new perspective. I really enjoyed that.

Nell - And some little-known stories, know, things that... Rosie, I guess, is a little bit more familiar or becoming a little more familiar, but some of these other stories people may not know as well.

Valerie - And I love how Riley gets herself into a good bit of trouble thinking that, you know, she's kind of Nancy Drew in it, but she kind of gets herself going in the wrong direction, making assumptions. I love that. My goodness. I love that about Riley because that is a 12-year-old girl who is like, well, I'm going to say it's this and you're the one, you're the one in the wrong. And it's like, yep, I've got a 12-year-old at home too.

Nell - She does. She makes assumptions all the time. Bless her heart.

Valerie - I saw a lot of my kids' attitude in there in a good way. But I didn't really expect when I first came across her books that they were going to be contemporary. I did kind of walk into them thinking, okay, we're going to have a story about World War II in a historical context. But it was a really unique narrative to kind of do a little bit of both. What made you want it to be a contemporary story rather than a historical fiction?

Nell - Yeah, a couple of things. As you mentioned, my parents were both involved in World War II. My dad was a paratrooper in southern France, and my mom worked on B-29 airplanes. She had never even seen an airplane up close, just high in the sky, and she learned to rivet. And as many of those women did in the 1940s. But I think seeing it from their perspective, I liked that. I guess it's a comfort zone for me because that's how I've heard about the war, through the eyes of people who are now elderly, so many of them are away. Just this past week, I was with Rosie, who is 99, in a meeting. I liked being able to put some of those elderly characters in the story. All of these stories feature elderly characters because they are the ones telling the stories, and they are the ones who know about World War II. And they are interesting because they

Have first-hand information, which is coming to a younger generation who didn't live through it, as I am in that situation also. But I liked the way that we could have intergenerational conversations and interaction between kids and older people. And it's okay to talk to older people. It's even fun to talk to older people. And I think the other reason I wanted to do it contemporary was because I really had a heart for our kids these days, especially our kids who are trying to follow Jesus, who are trying to live a Christian life, and they have so many people around them who are telling them that it is ludicrous to be a Christian, it's outdated, it's oppressive, it's not smart. And I wanted to give a perspective that it is okay to be a Christian, and it is possible, and it is smart to be on the Lord's side. I got to accomplish both of those things by setting it in contemporary times.

Valerie - Most definitely. It's one of those, you see the hints of faith throughout Grandma Susie, and how Riley kind of deals with her dad being in the military. And it's really neat to kind of walk alongside Riley as she's kind of facing these hard questions that, golly, we all face. We never stopped facing them even at 12, but you know, but you know, that's kind of that eight to 12 range. Really starting to discover your world, discover where you fit in your world. And it is really great to find characters that you can relate to and to ask those questions safely, in a way that they're going to respond with a Christian worldview. And that's really sweet in these stories for all your characters. And I really do enjoy the interaction between Grandma Susie and Riley. And yeah, like I said, those intergenerational conversations are really sweet and fun. Know, it's kind of, we forget that, you, our grandparents, or even our great grandparents, if they're still around, they have so many stories to tell us, and it is just a gift to be able to spend time with them.

Nell - If you have the opportunity to do it, it really is. It really is a gift. And you can jump right in, you know.

Valerie - It really is. Yep, they would give everything to have a phone call from their grandchildren for certain.

Nell - They would love it. Absolutely.

Valerie - Well, I love the heart behind these stories, but what do you hope to communicate to kiddos who read these books?

Nell - Well, partly the history, you know, that it's there. I think that when we study history, it gives us a sense of something bigger than ourselves. You know, we are joined together. I think this is one reason I love old hymns, because people hundreds of years ago were singing these same hymns to the same God and worshiping. And I get that same sort of sense with this World War II era.

Right after 9-11 in 2001, I heard, well, I read Rosie, who was interviewed in a newspaper, and she made the comment that the crisis of that day was similar to the crisis that they experienced in the 1940s. It was sudden. It was an uncertain future, the absence of peace, supporting the military, pulling together, and turning to faith. And I thought, you know,

There are so many lessons to be learned from those who have faced this kind of thing before, and in the case of World War II, came out so well, victorious, or came out with still freedom in our land. And why not learn from those lessons? So I guess that's one thing, the history of all the many facets of what that generation gave to us, gave to our kiddos today.

And as I mentioned, just sticking with their Christian faith, I've put a scripture in each one. So far, they've all come from Ephesians. I didn't do that on purpose. The first one is Ephesians 6.10, Be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. And Riley learns that if you know, a lot of people use the We Can Do It slogan, which has really encouraged so many people throughout the years to do so many different things. But if you put God in the we, then you can tap into a power that you couldn't even dream up for yourself. So she is learning how to handle things, the curveballs that life has thrown in her direction. Life always does. Always does.

Valerie - And life always comes with curveballs. Too fun. Well, Mel, when did your writing journey begin?

Nell - I liked to write as a child, like a lot of authors, I suppose. I was kind of an explainer. I wanted to tell you how to do things. There was a show a long time ago called Clarissa Explains It All, and I think that was me. I wanted to explain it all. But when I was in college, I was allowed to start writing a curriculum for my denomination for admissions curriculum for children. And I don't want to tell you how many decades later it is now, but I'm still doing that some. I have enjoyed it. So I've been a nonfiction person for a while, was a magazine editor, and I have a little tradition with all my grandchildren when they get into third grade, we publish a book together. So we have eight now and one to go. And so I've been into that, into nonfiction, but I kind of came back into the fiction dream a few years ago. I was a caregiver for my mom for seven years after my dad passed away. And part of that was traveling with her and giving the Rosie presentation. She was the speaker for a lot of different events and so forth. And so for about five years before COVID hit, we did that together. But in the last couple of years of her life, my husband was also diagnosed with cancer. And so I was a caregiver for both of them. And she passed away in 2021 at the age of 99, and then had a great long life. And then my husband passed away eight months later. So I knew that there was a next chapter for me. Didn't understand all the whys. Still don't. All the whys and all the questions. But I knew that God had a new chapter for me. He apparently did because I'm still here. And I pretty soon felt pretty strongly that it had to do with children and writing. So having nine grandchildren, that's part of the children.

Part there and but I had wanted to write fiction for a long time, dabbled in it, I'll say, and I just decided maybe the time is now, and I began to explore that and doors began to open and just door open, door open, door open, and three years later we have two books in the series that are out. So it's all his.

Valerie - That's really neat, I love how God always has his hand on it. And it's really neat to see how he puts you in a place to care for your mom and experience these Rosie the Riveter events that make a lot of the keep them flying, but very real. You see it, you hear it, because that's what you were doing: going to these events and talking with these ladies and talking about what these Rosie the Riveters did and how they impacted not just the war itself, but also women's rights and the ability for women to work and all those things too.

Nell - All their work ethic, if their patriotism and their willingness to just step up and do it, whatever it had, whatever had to be done, even though they didn't expect to have to do that. A, there are a lot of things that we, we, we gained from them, and their stories are as varied as there are Rosies. Nobody really knows how many roses there were. Some estimates are 6 million. Some put it more than that, but there weren't records kept like there were for the veterans, say.

And so it's kind of word of mouth to find a Rosie these days. My mother started an organization, actually, for Rosies. And so with that involvement with her and that organization, I've been able to be the editor for some of their books of stories. So several hundred of their stories have come in through these books, and they're all different, all different jobs, all different thoughts.

Pretty much always the same, we did what we needed to do. We were happy to help our country. We were happy to preserve freedom.

Valerie - Yes. And it's one of those things with the "We can do it" motto, which is a picture of what we can do as a country, as a people together, we can do hard things, step into places where we're needed. And it really encompassed us as a nation, but it, you know, a lot of just, I don't know, the grit and perseverance we want to pass on to our kids as well as, you know, we can do that.

Nell - Yeah. Spunky women, my goodness. They are so much fun to be around.

Valerie - Yes. I can only imagine. Now, what has been one of the most impactful books of your life other than the Bible?

Nell - Well, if you're thinking of a spiritual sort of nonfiction kind of book, I would have to say The Purpose Driven Life. I didn't quite get on board with it when it was first out and

Popular in the 90s, perhaps, but in the last three or four years, it has been very impactful in helping me to understand how God uses everything He's given us in our lives and every how many years of preparation.

We've been on this earth. That's preparation for the job. He has today for us and But I guess if you're thinking from a literature standpoint Well as a child Gotta say Little Women anything Louisa May Alcott from eight cousins to Joe's boys to Jack and Jill and all all kinds of things, but I loved Beverly Cleary I loved a lot of role models in some of the books I read as a child. I had good role models in my life, too, but

A character would say they wanted to adopt 12 children, and I would think I want to adopt 12 children too. I didn't, but. Or this would be a kindergarten teacher, and

I would think I want to be a

Kindergarten teacher, too. I did eventually come around to be in a school setting with young children, but another one that I did not know as a child was the Anne of Green Gables series. I know a lot of children have really enjoyed that series.

I never heard of it until I was married with at least two children. And the mini-series came out first, and I just rented it at the video store. I'm showing my age so much, but the video store where you could go and check out videos. And I wasn't prepared for the impact that that was going to have on my life because at the time I had three children, I guess by the time I actually settled down to watch it, one of them was my challenge, and he was a redhead. So, as Anne was a redhead, yes. And I gained just so much hope and calm and peace from that. So now, as a writer, I love to go back and read Lucy Maud Montgomery's.

 Her turn of phrase is so much fun, and her characters, her characters can talk for six pages, and you don't care because they're just fun. They're just telling stories, or they're quirky, and Anne just deals with them all. Annoying, hostile, whatever they are. And it's a good reminder, I think, to me that we can't always control what comes into our lives, but we can control how we react to it, how we respond.

Valerie - I love that about the Anne character, and you know, what is it? That's been one of my characters that I've related to very well as a redhead and as a strong-willed, opinionated person. There are a few stories of my own that are not too different than Anne's.

Nell - Well, I must say that this child I mentioned came by it honestly. And it stood him in good stead because he's a high school teacher now.

Valerie - There's nothing they can't throw at him that he's not going to be ready for, right? Well, now what can we expect next from you?

Nell - Well, there's a third book coming out in the series about the time this podcast comes out. Perhaps it will be coming out. It's called Ten Minutes of Home, the historical nugget in it. It's inspired by a small town in Nebraska, North Platte, and it was where the railroad lines came through. It is kind of in the middle of the country, and all the railroad lines came through.

How did they transport their troops in those days? By train. So, going to the east or the west coast to ship out or going wherever they needed to go for training, they would come through North Platte, sometimes 24, 25 trains a day, each with hundreds of troops on them. So the women of North Platte and about 100 of the surrounding communities decided to feed them all. And so from December 1941, Christmas Day, just after Pearl Harbor, until 19...when most of them were home, 51 months, they met every train and fed cookies and cakes and pies and sandwiches and apples and milk and coffee and birthday cakes and chicken and pheasants even, whatever they had. And they would pull their ration stamps together, put them all together, and cook like crazy when it was their day to come. Then, they would use their gas ration coupons and stamps to bring it all to North Platte. And in all, they exported hope and morale to 6 billion troops in that amount of time. So that's the nugget. That's the historical nugget, the inspiration.

Valerie - It'll be fun to see how Riley gets herself into a little bit of trouble in Nebraska.

Nell - And it's a Veterans Day story. It's Veterans Day in Nebraska, set in Nebraska.

Valerie - That will be a lot of fun for sure. I can't wait to see it. Where can people find out more about you and your books?

Nell - Well, my website is www.nellbranum.com. So, the books are everywhere that you would order a book from. If you go to Moody Publishing's website, www.moodypublishers.com, there is an excerpt for each one of books one and two that you can read. I think it is the first couple of chapters.

Valerie - We'll make sure to have those links in the description so that people can both find you and find those excerpts so they can fall in love with Riley, too. Wonderful. Thank you so much for joining me today, Nell.

Nell -It's been a pleasure. Thank you so much.

Valerie -And thank you for joining Nell and me on this episode of the Bookworthy Podcast. Check the show notes for any books or links that we discussed, and let us know in the comments if you make New Year's resolutions. Be sure to like and subscribe to discover more great books together.

 Happy reading.