Perkins wrote a series of children's books set in different countries and eras. Twins were always the main characters. The Belgian Twins tells the story of eight-year-old Jan and Mie Van Hove who live on the family farm near the German border in 1914. Just before the war begins, their father and all the able-bodied men in the area are conscripted into the Belgian army. His wife and the children keep the farm going until the actual invasion. As German troops move close to their home, Mother Van Hove hides her children in the root cellar and runs to the town for any news she can find. But the Germans overrun the area before she can get back to the farm and it is weeks before she manages to return. The farm has been trashed and everything of value taken, including all the animals. She finds a note attached to the kitchen door. Her children stayed hidden, along with the family dog, until the soldiers left. They are now on the road looking for their mother.

So begins the adventure. These are ordinary, but very sensible, children. They know where their mother went and follow her into town. The town is empty and they join the line of refugees heading vaguely toward Antwerp. On the way they meet people who help them: an old eel seller who shelters them and a young family who live on a canal boat and make their living transporting produce from farms to the city markets.

The Germans are not portrayed as monsters or caricatures. Bullies, yes, who had little patience with the civilian population, still dangerous but not men who cut off the hands of children.

If there is one flaw it is that the last two chapters are very sentimental. I confess I got a lump in my throat, but I also whimper when I read the last chapter of Black Beauty. The novel was written, I suspect, for American children to have a reason they could comprehend about why Papa, Uncle George, or Brother Ben was going off to fight in another country.

It worked surprisingly well and is still a good read. The book is available for free at Project Gutenberg. I listened to the free audio at Libervox. The links are below.

https://librivox.org/search?q=belgian%20twins&search_form=advanced

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3642 ( )