One day, Marjorie Malcolm-Scott meets Shona McInnes in the park. They are both orphans, but while Shona lives in an orphanage, Marjorie lives with her Uncle Fergus in a rich part of Edinburgh. The girls become friendly enough to exchange identities when they are sent away to escape the bombings. Shona is being sent to the Scottish countryside with the students from her school. Marjorie is bound for Canada to live with relatives. Frightened of the sea voyage, Marjorie convinces Shona to trade places with her. They vow to meet at the park after the war. Marjorie and another orphan, Anna, go to live with the Miss Coopers in Canonbie. Years pass as the war rages throughout Europe. Marjorie's first life slips away, and she becomes Shona McInnes from Canonbie, Scotland. She thrives under the tender care of her guardians. At the end of the war, Marjorie passes the entrance exams to Edinburgh University. The only blight on her happiness is the deception she's lived under all these years. She must go back to the park and find the real Shona. Only then will she be free to live her own life.
©2024 Kathy Maxwell at https://bookskidslike.com ( )

Interesting book about Marjorie, a rich, but lonely girl, who trades places with a spunky girl from a nearby orphanage when they are evacuated from Edinburgh during World War II. The orphan, Shona McInnes, goes to Marjorie's rich relatives in Canada (who don't know Marjorie), while Marjorie is taken in by two women in the small town where Shona's family had lived. The story follows Marjorie as she and her guardians mature and become a loving family. She also discovers who Shona's family was. More importantly, she discovers herself. ( )