An Empty House Doesn’t Sneeze renders life on the home front through the watchful eyes of 15-year-old Scotty Johannsen as WWII rages across the globe. Against the backdrop of blackouts, bomb shelters, rationing, and victory gardens, Scotty and his friends follow the rhythms of yesteryear, weaving their wartime worries through the “wilds” of Seattle’s Ravenna Park, where their imaginations run free.
Into this fragile balance a neighborhood threat emerges: Someone is lighting fires during the mandatory blackouts. Scotty, whose father is an air raid warden, is soon caught up in the firebug mystery and tries to smoke the arsonist out. When the local bully throws suspicion on Scotty’s draft-age brother, and when even his best friend’s actions don’t seem to add up, Scotty must navigate a moral and ethical thicket while treading a path toward maturity. Even as scarcity slips into every nook and cranny, An Empty House Doesn’t Sneeze celebrates a youthful spirit and hearkens to simple pleasures, where free time and family abound.
David Scott Richardson’s An Empty House Doesn’t Sneeze is a work of historical fiction set in 1943 in the Pacific Northwest. A heartwarming and playful coming-of-age adventure, this novel is suitable for MG/YA and the young at heart. It contains no gratuitous language, but there are a few slurs that are true to the historical setting and swear words—in keeping with the characters and story.
Richardson’s clean, fresh prose draws the characters and events in deft strokes, starting with Scott, of course, but also pulling in his friend Burr, with his quirky love for dismantling devices and crafting unique contraptions out of them—an engaging, lovable addition to an already appealing cast. Scott’s other friends—James, who wants nothing more than to be the “big cheese” everywhere he goes, and Marty, “a bit of a flat tire who was usually a day late and a dollar short”—pitch in with tracking down the firebug, as does Scott’s draft-age older brother Erik and sister Greta. Readers will find Richardson’s domestic scenes—with a stereotypical strict father and more approachable, lenient mother—and the family gatherings around the radio, listening to their favorite shows and the news, both nostalgic and relatable.
Through a tense atmosphere of mystery and suspense, Richardson’s needle of suspicion rises, eventually pointing, successively, at two people who are emotionally close to the protagonist. The denouement also richly pays off the created suspense, and Richardson ties up the loose ends neatly. Perhaps most remarkable are the novel’s nuanced responses to the war, from heroic to pacifist, delivered in a non-judgmental and empathetic way, providing its intended young audience with a means of forming their own opinions.
Takeaway: Suspenseful WWII mystery rich with empathy.
Comparable Titles: Sherri L. Smith’s Flygirl, Cynthia Kadohata’s Weedflower.
Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: NA
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A-
