"What did you do in the war, Dad?"

Back in the early '60s, "the War" meant WWII, and the question was asked by fifth-grader Mary at the family dinner table. Not a chatty sort, her father simply replied that he served on a submarine out in the Pacific, and didn't elaborate.

Mary envisioned a sleek, narrow submarine twirling around in the blue waters. Eventually, she began to wonder how that would be useful. Many years later, a chance popped up to learn more about this dangerous, intense time her father had been through when he was invited to a reunion of his submarine crew. He opened up to her questions, and that was the beginning of And the Baker's Boy Went to Sea. It's the only novel ever written specifically for young people (ages 10 and up) which is set on a WWII submarine.

Nearly fifty years after Mary's dad's wartime experiences in the South China Sea, his granddaughter, Ada, was born in China. Three Names of Me is a keepsake book for school-aged girls who were born in China and adopted in the U.S. While fiction, it is based on the story of Mary's daughter. The subject of the book is not adoption, but identity. Mary writes, "I wanted to give my daughter something to help her connect with the missing fragments of her origins. Names are a concrete, familiar way for kids to claim their identity, but many adopted kids don't know their birthname. The story makes this absent name—and all it represents—as alive and real as her other names."

Three Names of Me
illustrated by Lin Wang
Albert Whitman & Company, 2006
Ages 8-13, ISBN 978-0-8075-7903-9

Ada has three names. Wang Bin is what the caregivers called her at her Chinese orphanage. Ada is the name her American parents gave her as the three traveled home. And there is a third name, a name the infant Ada heard whispered by her Chinese mother. That name, unknown but treasured, is someplace in Ada's heart.

Written for all girls who, like Ada, are both Chinese and American, Mary Cummings' lyrical text speaks of love remembered and love present. Lin Wang's beautiful paintings enrich this keepsake book. Additional pages based on Ada's scrapbook will inspire readers to collect their own drawings, photos, and thoughts.

And the Baker's Boy Went to Sea
Sparkling Press, 2006
Agegs 10-14, ISBN 978-0-9774855-0-5

Fifteen-year-old Owen, too young to enlist in the U.S. Navy, lies about his age and joins the crew of a WWII submarine. But just like at home, he is assigned to bake bread. "Where's the glory in that?" he wonders, envying his friends who serve as lookout and guide the submarine in diving. Their mission is to hunt and sink Japanese supply ships, but the tables are turned as the U.S.S. Mako itself becomes the hunted.

Accounts from sixteen WWII submarine veterans, plus a wealth of published material, provided author Mary Cummings with factual substance and authenticity for this coming-of-age novel. Includes period photos, technical information, bibliography, and notes on events of the time.