The Lion's Run

An orphan in Nazi-occupied France discovers unexpected courage within himself in the first historical novel from the acclaimed, bestselling author of Pax. For fans of Alan Gratz, Ruta Sepetys, and Kimberly Brubaker Bradley.

 

Petit éclair. That’s what the other boys at the orphanage call Lucas DuBois. Too softhearted to play war, too cowardly to fight his bullies. He’s tired of his weak reputation, just as he’s tired of the war and the Nazi occupation of his French village. He longs for justice, a chance to show how brave he can be.

Then one day he manages to save some kittens from cruel boys and brings them to an abandoned stable to care for them. There he comes upon a stranger who is none too happy to see him: Alice, the English daughter of a horse trainer, who is hiding her own filly from being conscripted for battle.

As the two fall into a tentative alliance, Lucas begins to realize they are not the only ones in the village with secrets. The housekeeper at the German maternity home and a priest at the orphanage pass coded messages under the noses of the occupiers; a neighbor in town may be hiding a Jewish family; and a young mother at the home makes dangerous plans to keep her baby from the Germans. Emboldened by the unlikely resisters all around him – and rumors of an Allied forces invasion – Lucas must decide how much he is willing to risk to make the most courageous rescue of all.