Item Description

BRIAN KARADASHIAN WILL PERSONALLY AUTOGRAPH AND MAIL TO WINNING BIDDER!  Please See Reviews.

"Twelve-year-old Billy Roarke yearns for his father, a paratrooper stationed in England during World War II. It is 1943, and Billy and his mother live a comfortable life in Pasadena, California. That comfort is soon shattered, and the results forever change Billy and his world."

"Foreward" from the "A Flag in the Window" 

"I am honored to have been asked to paint the cover for Brian Karadashian’s children’s historical novel A Flag in the Window, a book which evokes the spirit of homefront America as well as any I have ever read. 

The story depicts a year in the life of twelve-year-old Billy Roarke, whose father is a paratrooper stationed in England. Karadashian’s book is firmly rooted in 1943; he does a fine job of describing that era with more than just the standard images of the time: the swing music, the war bond posters, etc. He transports the reader with the language, along with the appropriate sensibilities, of the period. Young readers of A Flag in the Window will learn how people spoke then, but more importantly, what they thought and how they thought. Karadashian nicely captures the zeitgeist of 40s America. 

But this book is more than that. A Flag in the Window transcends eras, like all good literature does, by illuminating humanity. One example: Billy’s friend Mac, a soda jerk at the local pharmacy, reluctantly conveys the horrors of war he experienced in the trenches during the Great War. Of the hundreds of books I have read on World War I, I have never read such a moving and insightful depiction of friendship amidst the horrors of trench warfare. The scene is short and simple, as is the book, but powerful, as is the book. 

This story is ultimately about redemption, and the dramatic twists and turns the story takes to arrive at that redemption make this book entertaining and compelling, to the point that I believe it would make a fine motion picture." 

A Flag in the Window is a fine -- and unique – children’s book, and, to my mind, it deserves to become a classic of American homefront literature."  

About Brian Karadashian:

Brian Karadashian teaches elementary school in the Rancho Bernardo community of San Diego. He received a B.A. from San Diego State University in 1983 and an M.A. from Stanford University in 1990. He has had articles published in the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner and the Dallas Times Herald. He has two grown stepchildren, Erik and Samantha, and lives with his wife, Marcia, in Escondido, California.  A Flag in the Window is his first novel.

About the Illustrator:

Richard DeRosset is a maritime and aviation historian. He is the official artist for the San Diego Maritime Museum and is an official U.S. Coast Guard artist. His paintings are displayed worldwide, including at the Central Military Museum in Moscow and at the Smithsonian Institution. His work can be viewed at www.richardderosset.com.

Item Special Note

REVIEWS:  9 Reviews on Amazon, all 5 star!