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 Molly Levite Griffis is a bona fide character, delightfully so. An
effervescent 1960s coed from tiny Apache, Oklahoma, she left her mark on the OU campus by plunging into every student activity that would admit her, but was perhaps most unforgettable for her Sooner
Scandals fire baton act that threatened the very survival of venerable Holmberg Hall. She was a soccer mom before there were any, taped books for the blind, helped start a private school and opened a shop
that specialized in the unlikely combination of books and Pendleton blankets.
When she discovered that notable works by notable Oklahoma authors were out of
print, she started her own publishing company to reissue them. She promoted fledgling writers and illustrators by non-stop verbal salesmanship and other means both
creative and outlandish. After rewarding yet frustrating years in the world of the small, independent book dealer/publisher, she dipped her toe into literary waters herself, producing two charming children's books, The Buffalo in the Mall and Five Two,
Five Blue. An inveterate letter-writer, the old-fashioned kind, she pulled together her correspondence with the equally entertaining best-selling author Billie Letts (Where the Heart Is) into You've Got Mail, Billie Letts.
With enough success from these disparate first efforts goading her on, Griffis closed her shop and publishing company and rented a secluded office she calls "the cave."
Having graduated from pencil and Big Chief tablet to typewriter (but not computer), she declared herself a writer and launched a series (two volumes so far) for the middle-school set that well may prove her point.
The setting is Griffis' hometown of Apache as small-town America grapples with the realities of the war, as seen through the eyes of its children. Well researched and
chock full of 1940s trivia that will delight today's youngsters and bring nostalgic smiles to their grandparents' faces, The Rachel Resistance and the just-published sequel, The Feester Filibuster, are multi-generational treats.
The Rachel Resistance
When 1940s radio hero Captain Midnight warns the nation's youngsters of the threat to the security of America, his devoted fans grab their Code-O-Graph badges and take
heed. Fifth-grader Rachel Dalton and her pal Paul Griffs are convinced that spies and saboteurs lurk in their hometown, perhaps in the person of her archenemy, John Alan Feester Jr.
Their rollicking adventures during this first year of World War II are the basis for this winner of the 2002 Oklahoma Book Award, but Griffis educates as she entertains.
Rachel's Resistance is a recounting of small-town patriotism and sacrifice, families separated by military service and uprooted to work in defense plants, even the
persecution of a local Chinese launderer for the slant of his eyes.
The Rachel Resistance is on the Master List for the Volunteer Award in Tennessee to be presented next year.
The Feester Filibuster
The war continues into its second year--and so do the humorous escapades of Apache's young patriots. This time, although Rachel Dalton remains a central
character, the viewpoint is that of John Alan Feester Jr., the school superintendent's son. Paul Griffs has moved to California, his place in Rachel's plots taken by a
mysterious new boy Simon Green, who tries to reconcile his warring classmates.
The sequel, in this case, is the better book, still full of the details of civilian life in
wartime, but also touching on the heartaches of loss and loneliness, the servicemen's mothers with blue stars in their windows, Paul's letter home about Japanese-Americans being taken away in cattle trucks to detention camps.
The Feester Filibuster concludes on an up note in 1942, with three war years to go--and the new characters Griffis introduced in book two simply must be pursued.
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