Keeper of Lost Children by Sadeqa Johnson is one of those books I did not want to put down. It is the poignant story of three characters whose lives are shaped by the aftermath of World War II, and it grew from Johnson’s extensive research for a previous book. Mabel T. Grammer, a journalist and wife of a chief warrant officer stationed in Mannheim, Germany, discovered that hundreds of mixed-race babies had been conceived and abandoned to orphanages. The children were the products of relationships between German women and Black American GIs. Through her Brown Baby Project, she and her husband Oscar worked to place these children with African American families in the United States. The mothers were often abandoned by their own families, who feared public scrutiny over non-Aryan babies, or were simply unable to care for them. Their American partners, meanwhile, had frequently been redeployed, were denied permission by U.S. commanding officers to bring a family home, or were simply unwilling to return with a “war baby.”
The character of Ethel Gathers is inspired by Grammer’s life and work. Struggling with her inability to conceive, Ethel one day wanders into a local Catholic orphanage and begins helping the overworked nuns care for the children there. She eventually adopts children of her own and develops a program to find loving homes for other brown babies across America.
Ozzie Philips is a bright young Black man from Philadelphia who enlists in the military hoping to escape racism and build a meaningful career. It is 1948, and President Truman has promised to integrate the armed forces. Despite earning the highest score on his preliminary military tests and hoping for an assignment in intelligence, Ozzie is placed in a role far beneath his abilities and subjected to the casual cruelty of a prejudiced commanding officer. He finds solace at a local bar, where he meets and falls in love with a German woman named Jelka. When she gives birth to their daughter, Ozzie is overwhelmed with love and vows to care for them both, but the promise is shattered when he is reassigned. Back in the States, he never stops searching for Jelka and the child he left behind.
Sophia Clark is a young Black teenager growing up in rural Maryland in 1965, just as American schools begin to integrate. Despite being treated more like a farm hand than a child by her cold and indifferent parents, she earns top grades and catches the eye of a guidance counselor who helps her transfer to Oak Forest Academy, a prestigious boarding school, on scholarship. Her new life is unlike anything she could have imagined: she encounters both the incredible privilege of her new surroundings and the sting of blatant racism, alongside the unexpected gift of genuine friendship with other Black students.
Keeper of Lost Children is a compelling, character-driven novel that brings its historical timelines to vivid life. Each of these three characters felt real and worth caring about, and I am pleased to recommend it highly to fellow Grandezza readers.
