‘Winnie’s War’ captures glimpse of an earlier time

“Winnie’s War,” by Jenny Moss, Walker & Co., New York, 170 pages, $16.99.

Winnie has worries. The year is 1918 in Coward Creek. Everyone is supporting the war effort.

Living next to the cemetery with her father, a coffin builder, contributed to her paranoia.

She is concerned about a body sleeping underground with only a tombstone for a pillow. The influenza epidemic has closed the schools, the picture show, even the churches.

Her little sister has weak lungs. The Germans are set to invade Galveston.

Her classmate Nolan tells Winnie that Vicks VapoRub will prevent her family from catching the flu, but Mr. Craven’s store is hoarding it.

They determine to somehow get the preventive medicine. They make burlap masks for everyone to wear. Her chess playing friend, Mr. Levy, says bravery means being afraid — but facing danger.

Can the two children protect their families?

Winnie’s house has become a house of secrets. Clara, her grandmother, is surprising in her defense of tolerance, the mystery and confusion surrounding her mother and the destructive gossip of a small town.

With a large cast of characters, Moss sketches out each with interesting, easily remembered traits, such as rich ladies with maids, the town society queen and social life in a small town. Winnie tries to “let the good and the sad live side by side.”

Author Jenny Moss first became interested in this tragic time after seeing the play by Horton Foote, 1918. The Spanish influenza eventually killed 20 million people worldwide.

She researched how the flu affected people living in the Houston and Galveston area. Winnie’s War offers the reader a glimpse of an earlier time.

JoAn Watson Martin is an educator who taught in public schools and at the university level, an author of teen novels and serves as a consultant for Houston-area schools.