When Christmas Comes Again: The World War I Diary of Simone Spencer

Dear America

by Beth Seidel Levine

In April of 1917, Simone Spencer's world changes. Her beloved brother Will goes off to war, and Simone seeks a way to help. The passionate daughter of a feisty French mother and a rebellious upper-class father, Simone is not cut out for the society life she is meant to lead. So, when General Pershing calls for French-speaking American girls to operate the switchboards on the Western Front, Simone becomes one of the first brave "Hello Girls" whose courage helps lead the Allies to victory. In the end, Christmas brings the Spencers back together again.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Middle Grade, Christmas, Fiction, Childrens, Young Adult, Historical

176 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2002

Reviews

[Rebekah Morris · Rating 3 out of 5]

This story was pretty good, but there really wasn’t much Christmas in it until the end which sort of bugged me since its title has Christmas in it. Anyway, for someone who doesn’t know much about the first World War, this might be a good story to get them interested, but I found it just pretty good. Perhaps that was the fact that I’d done extensive reading and research on that war and this book just didn’t give me the feeling of the war. Perhaps it was because this story is written in a diary form which only allows for so much information.
There really is no mention of the real meaning of Christmas. There is one mention of Simone hoping an angel ornament will protect her brother and friend in the fighting.

[kris · Rating 1 out of 5]

Simone Spencer, aged 17, volunteers with the Signal Corps to go to France and serve as a switchboard operator at the front lines. While overseas, she makes a friend, discovers the depths of grief, and falls in love.

If that seems overly simplistic for a WWI story, YOU'D BE RIGHT.

I think the hard truth is that I have simply outgrown these books. I have enough base knowledge that these books no longer spark that interest; they don't whet my appetite; they feel like they're under-delivering on very serious, complex topics. I want to sink my teeth into them but there's nothing there: it's like a mouthful of cotton candy, melting down into a stomach ache.

[Cheyenne · Rating 4 out of 5]

“The thing is, if in your life, you never got any bad news, never got weary, never got the wind knocked out of you, well, there would be nothing left in this world to move you. And there would be no reason at all to well up in a teary smile and hold on tight to everything you love. I know now that that’s the whole point. That’s the whole point of everything.”

There’s a lot that Simone’s story has going for it - musings on class relations and recognizing one’s privilege as a member of the upper class, the struggle to preserve some sort of teenage girlhood while in a foreign country at war, and the complicated mix of emotions in elation at the war being over and the grim realization that both she and her world will never quite be the same.

For those who argue that Simone has no characterization and that her diary entries are lackluster, I disagree completely. She clashes with her grandmother and other “high society” women over their expectations of her. She isn’t as radical as her suffragist friend Francie, but Simone develops an understanding of women’s empowerment through her experience as a “hello girl” switchboard operator. I related strongly to her anxieties over graduating high school and wanting to make a difference in the world without knowing what that difference could be.

As far as the diary entries go, before the war she couldn’t find the motivation to write and after the war she couldn’t find the time. She writes sporadically when she can, jotting down a few words in before she sleeps. She’s working twelve hour shifts - she doesn’t have time or energy to hammer out a dissertation every night. It’s not realistic, especially when her days consist of the same monotonous and stress-inducing switchboards over and over again.

For those who criticize her love story with Sam and how quickly it progresses, I again have to disagree. She grew up hearing all about how her mother and father fell in love at first sight, so it’s only natural that she would want to find that same kind of heart-stopping love for herself. The traumas that she and Sam experienced at war bind them together as much as sharing a dance, and in an unfamiliar world where you don’t know if you are going to survive to see the next day or not, you don’t always have the luxury to take the time to fall in love. Simone utilized her love for Sam (as well as her brother) as a way to motivate herself and keep her focused on the importance of her work.

I finished the book in one sitting with tears in my eyes. Is the ending a little too saccharine? Perhaps. Does that really matter? There are too many DA books with gross mischaracterizations of their subject matter for me to be bothered that Simone’s biggest flaw is she gets a happy ending. /endrant

[Jorge · Rating 4 out of 5]

this book is about the life of Simone Spencer during World War 1. in the story Simone leads an average life as a student, who sometimes helps the YMCA. just a few days after her graduation, her brother is leaving to go to war. during the year that her brother, Will, is gone life seems awfully boring for Simone, until she comes up with a brilliant idea. when she is 17, Simone asks her parents if she can help in the war by working on the phone lines near the battlefront.
her parents give her permission and she is shipped to Paris in a few days. Simone spends time exploring Paris and with other girls. she soon becomes friends with a girl named Alice, who's by Simone's side a lot of the time. they(along with some other girls work on the telephone lines many hours a day. their jobs are important because urgent messages are sent and are to be sent by all the girls.
the girls are constantly moving from place to place and are always getting closer to the battlefront. there is a dance on one night and Simone finds her brother Will and her true love. she and a boy named Sam Cates meet each other in dances and they fall in love. unfortunately, Sam is being sent to the next day, along with Sam and the other soldiers.
during the winter of 1918, the girls face harsh weather and have difficulty in their jobs. Alice gets sick day by day, for it turns out that she has a disease! Alice's death wish is for Simone to write her family a letter about how she cares about them. Simone fulfills her wish and mails it to Alice's family.
after many rough battles against the Germans, America finally wins the war! Simone and Will are finally returning home, and just in time to celebrate Christmas.but, it turns out that Will saw the death of Sam. Simone doesn't lose hope, though because she is certain that Sam did survive. as everyone is reunited during Christmas Eve, Simone goes to help in the hospital and is taken by surprise when she finds Sam on a hospital bed.
although Sam is alive, he isn't unharmed. it turns out that a grenade blew part of his leg off. unfortunately, Sam will have to stay in the hospital for rehabilitation. Father however, manages to bring Sam to their home to celebrate Christmas with them. all ends very well in Simone's life, but i can't tell you everything, so read the Epilogue to find out.

[Cassey · Rating 5 out of 5]

The life of Simone is just like a book I read befor.Her life was a real book.i just love it.it makes me sad but makes me smile too of the happines.the end made me happy and in the middle was sad how her best friend died.I just love her story of her life.

[kit]

not to sound like i'm a cynic who hates romance but why didn't sam actually get fridged to further simone's emotional development

[Tori · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love when I learn brand new things from these books. I'd never heard of the 'hello girls' before this. Amazing women.

[Brooke · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5
This was so interesting! I just love learning about things that I didn’t really learn about in school. The hello girls was such an important part of history and inspiring. The story was honestly whatever, the writing was very easy to read and super fast. This is not Christmasy at all except like a page, which makes sense because this is about World War One.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book about the female signal corps workers in world war i. Recommend

[Natalie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as Christmassy as I would have liked, but an interesting historical read nonetheless.

[Valerie Cotnoir · Rating 5 out of 5]

2021 Review: I first read this as a 17 year old, the exact age of the heroine. But I have to say that reading it as a 24 year old did not change my experience (or my star rating). Besides a break for lunch, I reread it in one sitting. It is warm, it is cozy, it is heartbreaking, it is real. I'm truly in awe of the fact that Levine could have such stunning prose and only have written this one book! 6 years later and I still hope she'll write another novel someday.

2018 Review:
This book is part of the Dear America series, a middle grade historical fiction series near and dear to my heart. I hope to review many Dear Americas in the future, but I’m excited that my first one happens to be one of my all-time favorites!

When Christmas Comes Again by Beth Seidel Levine is one of the few (if not the only) Dear America about a seventeen-year-old girl. Most of the Dear America heroines are between twelve and fourteen years old, so you can imagine my excitement when I was finally the exact same age as the main character. Therefore, Simone’s questions about her future and her meaning in life are very relatable as I asked myself similar questions at that age. Also, Simone’s family is French and as I am French-Canadian, I loved the bits of French language and references throughout the diary.

I’ll admit I might be a little biased as World War I is my favorite time period and this book happens to take place then, but ultimately, a good story is a good story. Simone, in wanting to make a difference, ends up signing on for a job that is more than she bargained for. Being a Hello Girl is not easy, but involves high-stress situations where her communications with Allied soldiers not only have to be coded, but she must help them reach their goals in calling, if she can. Simone wonders if she’s strong enough, but she doesn’t have time to decide whether she is or not because they need her—now. Sometimes it’s not about having strength before a situation arises, but getting through the situation which then gives you strength. This story is rich in history and I loved learning about another side of World War I we don’t often hear about.

There is romance, there is friendship, there is loneliness and there is heartache. Life lived during a war—any war—is often cruel and unfair. And questions are often left unanswered. But Simone pushes through it and when she returns home, she is made different by her experiences. She can never return to the sweet, innocent New York gal she once was, but she would never go back. One of my favorite quotes from the book perfectly reflects this thought:

“The thing is, if in your life, you never got any bad news, never got weary, never got the wind knocked out of you, well, there would be nothing left in this world to move you. And there would be no reason at all to well up in a teary smile and hold on tight to everything you love. I know now that that’s the whole point. That’s the whole point to everything.”

If that didn’t just give you chills, there’s nothing more I can do.

I give When Christmas Comes Again 5 out of 5 stars. It’s geared toward middle grade readers, but just as entertaining and educational for high schoolers and beyond. While the story does not entirely center around Christmas time, it begins and ends with Christmas. Because Christmas marks a time for families to be together—happy, content and at peace. There was no peace for the Spencer family in 1917 and although World War I had changed them greatly, they had peace in Christmas of 1918. This demonstrates that while we may not have peace now, we can look forward to the peace to come.

[Sadie Joy · Rating 5 out of 5]

With the war swiftly approaching, seventeen year old Simone Spencer's older brother, Will, immediately registers before a draft comes. As the war progresses, Simone begins to feel helpless, and her own New York City remains as it ever was, so it's easy to forget that there's a war going on at all.

Wanting to help in some way, Simone searches for options, volunteering at the YMCA for some time, and even looking into being a nurse for the Red-Cross. But after seeing the men at the hospital in critical condition, Simone doubts that being a nurse is the right choice.

When General John J. Pershing calls for young women to join his ranks to operate switchboards, Simone is thrilled, and when the ages are lowered, she immediately starts training. That's when the real action begins.

This book weaved humor, anger, happiness, and sorrow so well. Simone's own perspective, her losses, her fury, her happiness, her sadness, they were written beautifully. I have a vivid imagination, and the words brought it to life.

Though the ending was bittersweet, as told, even Simone didn't wish anything differently. If her grief, if sad things had not happened, if her life had not ever been sorrow filled, then in the end, she wouldn't be able to be truly appreciate the joy that came in the end.

[Joanne Roberts · Rating 5 out of 5]

This outstanding volume in the Dear America historical diary series centers on a "hello girl" of World War I. (In lieu of spoilers, read the book) The author's perfect pacing and organic infusion of historical fact into an epistolary fiction is like a master class. I've read many of the Dear America and My Name is America books, and while some have maybe better writing or more gripping plots, this one is superb in its natural feel, engaging style, and informative content. The backmatter is not as good as some of the others. But this one is in no way still or dull (as some in the series are) Highly recommended to glean a bit about this time period.

[clara · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have basically no opinions on this book, but it didn't do child marriage, so I think it's a win. The main problem with Dear America is the child marriage. This book demonstrates a way to do romance while avoiding child marriage: making the character 18. I would recommend this book to Kristiana Gregory. I wouldn't really recommend it to anyone else. I didn't care for the writing and I thought it made Simone feel younger than she is. Still--and I cannot stress this enough--there was no child marriage in this book.

[Megan Anderson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay, so the ending was a little sappy and contrived, but that's fine. The rest of the book...well, it's interesting, but mostly because I didn't realize women went over to Europe during WWI in any other capacity than "nurse." So that part was cool. However, the book itself was just kinda...meh. It didn't seem terribly well-written or anything. In other words, topic = interesting, book = not so much.

3/5 on here, 6/10 for myself.

[Kelsey Hanson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm choosing to read this during Christmas because of the title, but really it's not completely centered on the holiday and covers a year of a young American woman stationed in Europe. This shows how much responsibility was given to young people during an extremely challenging period of history. It gave an interesting look at how women were able to be involved in the military during WWI.

[Meredith · Rating 5 out of 5]

[2021 Review]

I really enjoyed returning to this lovely Dear America story, which was the first one I ever read! It endures as one of my all-time favorites. Great characters, strong historical setting, charming romance, good lessons, and an ending that's tied up as pretty as a Christmas bow—what more could you ask for during the holidays?!

[Emily Danielson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was such a sweet and endearing read! I really connected with the main character Simone and loved how the ending turned out for her and her family. It was fun learning about growing up during WW I as well. Highly recommend!

[Jacquie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fictional journal of a young woman who serves as a telephone operator on the World War I front lines. I especially loved the love story within!

[Cynthia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this. I could identify with the main character and this helped me understand more about WW1 and how my grandmother grew up.

[Kat Saunders · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, we've officially made it to Book 30 in the series.

This one was . . . fine? This deep into the series, the less exciting books start to really show the Dear America repetitive formula--it's actually why I think author of the previous book in the series, a 16-year-old girl did such a good job: she recognized and reproduced that formula perfectly. Unfortunately, that repetitive formula is on display here, especially in the book's underwhelming second half.

I thought the material set in New York had a lot more energy, which comes as no surprise since the author said her love of New York inspired the book. Maman is a really interesting character. While it is a little annoying that Simone is a 1%-er, I appreciated that there was some commentary on class as an undercurrent throughout the book, which includes how the upper-class New York Simone lived in had clear expectations for young women . . . none of which sounds appealing to Simone. At 19 when the book ends, it was nice to see a more mature narrator.

The problem, for me, is that the broader global history--the history of the war-- seems like a total afterthought compared the characters' relationships. In other books this wouldn't have bothered me, and in fact, I've made the opposite complaints that the big historic events felt shoehorned in unnecessarily. But with both Will and Simone literally going into the action, I felt like more needed to be done to explain the circumstances and the stakes more generally. The historic note in the back did a good job of giving context, but it needed to be embedded more in the narrative.

As a whole, Simone seems more concerned about socializing than her work, and somehow it takes the death of a friend to really get her to focus, which is at odds with her attitude when she decided to volunteer. I hoped for excitement when Simone arrived in France, but once she gets there, she's mostly she's just obsessing over a boy, and the descriptions of her work are surprisingly dull and lean (big stretches of time pass with no entries). Then, the war ends abruptly with minimal reflection. Instead, Simone is bereaved because she thinks her love interest has been killed. It's tedious because I can't imagine a reader over age 10 honestly thinking this would be true in a book meant to be all Christmas-y (which no makes me think how ballsy it would have been to commit to killing off the love interest). Anyway, the last 30 pages are predictable and corny. I can handle both of those things--just don't bore me.

A lot of people are ragging on the "love at first sight" thing with Sam, but I'll let it go because I'm imagining how lonely and scary it would have been to be in their positions, and I can see how their experiences bonded them after the initial honeymoon phase wore off. In the grand scheme of irritating Dear America relationships, this one isn't even in the top 10.

This book reads like the author wanted to write a story set in New York during the war but was given the editorial note to have Simone volunteer to go overseas. She just doesn't pull off that material, and I would have preferred to read a diary where Simone stays in America, perhaps doing the nurse work we see her doing in the first half?

There are six books left in the OG series. Hoping at least a couple of them will be more memorable than this one.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unpopular opinion time!

This is a PG romance masquerading as a Dear America book. There, I said it!

Now don't get me wrong, it wasn't terrible, but I felt this was a 50/50 split between a love story and a historical fiction. Everything was very...fairytale happy. Simone instantly knows that Sam is the love of her life. She never doubts whether he's dead or alive. They get married and live happily ever after. Even the friend she makes in hospital ends up being part of her happy ever after thanks to her best friend. Her time as a switchboard operator was...okay. It doesn't go into too much detail and she skips a lot of time because she's so "busy."

All in all it was okay. Not the greatest but not terrible by any means.

Actual rating 2.5 stars out of 5.

[Courtney (pawsitivelybookish) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probably one of my favorite Dear America books! I don’t think this is one I read as a kid, so it was all new to me.

I’ll be honest that I don’t really remember learning much about WWI in school, so much of the content was new to me. I’ve only briefly heard of Hello Girls before this.

This one definitely rugged at my heartstrings and Simone was such a badass character. I loved the strong girl power theme here.

My only actual complaint was the slightly misleading title. Most of the book didn’t take place around Christmas. But it did lead back to the hope that the whole family would be together again come Christmas.

[Crazy_smiler · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was torn between a 2 or a 3 star rating. I just found it uninteresting. Some aspects were. I didn’t like our protagonist much either. I wouldn’t say I disliked her. She was too plain, and seemed a bit airy like many teen girls. Not all but something I’ve experienced. Perhaps it’s naivety I’m thinking of. Anyway it was fairly blah for me. And a tad cheesy. My kid said it was really interesting yet she couldn’t remember anything after a several months lull of not reading it. Yet other books and shows she remembers lots.

[liso · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read with my 9 yo daughter and 13 yo son during their WWI unit. Both enjoyed it at a medium level but it got them some exposure to what I wanted. Things seemed a little slow-moving for my 9yo (no fault. I mean, it is about war.) and there was a little bit too much romance for my son so we skipped over some of that. I think they both enjoyed the detail sections about what the hello girls did. Overall served its purpose, no earth-shattering literature, wrapped up with a pretty happy ending and had a historical footnote and pictures at the end. I was happy with it.

[Virginia Henderson · Rating 3 out of 5]

No matter how old I get, I will always love The Dear America series. Back in middle school, those were the only books I ever read. I love the well researched history that draws the reader back into the time period. My favorite part are the pictures they always include in the back, it makes everything all the more real. As for this particular book, this was my first time reading it and I enjoyed it very much. These books are great for a quick read.

[Sharon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Naomi brought three Dear America titles home from the library - again. She has her favorites that she revisits a couple times a year.

This is a nice intro to New York City and WWI during 1917-1918. The "Hello Girls" of the US Army Signal Corps are little known or remembered ladies who served their country with distinction during this "modern war". These were ground-breaking women. This is a quick, enjoyable read.

[LobsterQuadrille · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice enough story that taught me a bit about the girls recruited as switchboard operators in the first World War. I could have done without the romance, though. It's not a very long book and there isn't much time taken to make the relationship believable. The ending was also a bit much. Sure, a downer ending is no fun, but the resolution here was just a little too Hallmark-happy. All in all, it's a sweet book but not essential reading for the Dear America series.

[Dalaina Renee · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a well written story. But very sad and hardly had a Christmas theme to it! Another title would have fit better. I found it sad that Alice lost her life at a young age catching a flu during the war. I was pleased that Sam was later found near Christmas. Still was a sad not an uplifting type of Christmas story at all.

[Janis · Rating 5 out of 5]

World War I was a huge deal and the average American knows virtually nothing about it. The Hello Girls were American women who were very important to the war effort and even people who know a lot about WWI frequently haven’t heard of them. I have read a lot about that war and really did enjoy this book.