Dear Mrs. Bird

[Audiobook]
By: AJ Pearce
Narrated by: Anna Popplewell
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Dates Listened: March 4-10 
Length: 9hrs 48 mins
Source: Overdrive App

Why did I read it?
This one just looked interesting at a glance.  Plus I was down for listening to a British accent.  

Dear Mrs. Bird follows Emmy in the midst of World War II.  Emmy volunteers as a telephone operator for the Auxiliary Fire Services, taking calls during the many bombings over the city of London.  She dreams of being a war correspondent and takes an interview with a London newspaper.  It isn't until she accepts the job that she realizes it is actually a job as a typist for the editor of a women's magazine.  

Her new boss, Mrs. Bird, has an advice column; however, she is very picky about the letters she responds to.  Nothing containing any "unpleasantness" is to be make it into the magazine - this is most letters by Mrs. Bird's standards.  Emmy finds it upsetting that Mrs. Bird leaves so many women with real problems unhelped because they're problems are there own silly fault.  So Emmy decides to take their problems into her own hands, under Mrs. Bird's name, and responds to them herself.  

This book does one of my favourite things, it laces fiction into history.  Some big events of these books include real events that happened in London during WWII.  I even Googled a few places and events to see if they had happened - they did.  This was a very clever and funny book.  The whole thing is quite lighthearted and charming.  While it carries some of the realities of the London Blitz, it is not overbearing or gruesome.  

The narrator was perfection.  I will gladly look up and listen to other things she has done. 

Rating: 4/5

Recommendation: I would recommend this to just about anyone.  It was a really nice read and I would read it again.