Remembrance Week Review: The Lonely Sentinel by Piet Prins

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When impetuous Dirk, a Dutch grade four student, unwittingly antagonized a Nazi sympathizer on the way home from school, he and his older brother Frans were saved by their father’s long-lost friend.  The boys delivered many mysterious messages between him and their father throughout that cold winter. As their family’s windmill became home to more and more secrets, the parents prayerfully allowed 17 year old Dries to follow his heart in service to God and his fellow-man.  Danger, hair-raising escapes, faith, secret meetings, compassion, and hilarious mishaps make The Lonely Sentinel a book we read over and over.

During the Nazi occupation Dutch people had to summon up courage to do right at great risk to themselves and their families.  In The Lonely Sentinel Piet Prins gives us a glimpse of how a Christian family came to live the lives of unsung heroes, one inevitable decision at a time.  Subsequent books in the thrilling Shadow Series continue to show the dedication and deep faith that characterized so many ordinary people during the war.

The Lonely Sentinel is an exciting but realistic story with moments of humor as well as tension.  It was very difficult to put down.  When I finished reading its 140 pages to the children (for the second time in a few years), they begged me to continue with the next books in the Shadow Series. Our family highly recommends all of them.

Although I read The Lonely Sentinel to all my children including Miss 8, there are some intense scenes in later books that would not be suitable for such young children.  Obviously, older children and teens will grasp the subtleties of the story better than little ones, but my young children also thoroughly enjoyed it both times I read it aloud.

The Lonely Sentinel by Piet Prins is available from Inheritance Publications; if you buy the whole Shadow Series you will receive a 15% discount.

Disclosure:  The Lonely Sentinel is among our family’s favorite books and the entire Shadow Series has been on our bookshelf for several years.  I am not compensated for my reviews, and my opinions are my own.