Keeper of Lost Children - a moving story inspired by a real-life heroine, set in the post-WWII years.

It's 1965 and Sophie Clark is living on a farm in Maryland. Without her family's knowledge, she applies for is awarded a scholarship to an elite boarding school, joining a small group of Black students. Despite her mother's wishes for her to remain home and work on the farm, Sophie seeks a better life, aware that she will need to confront the prejudices and racism of her fellow students. The story then shifts to 1950, where American Ethel Gather is living with her military husband stationed in post-World War II Germany. She grieves being childless. When she discovers a group of mixed-race orphans cared for by the nuns at a local church, she becomes determined to help these children who have been abandoned. The mothers were mostly married German women, and the fathers were soldiers who had returned to the U.S. In 1948, Ozzie Phillips leaves his friends and family to travel to Germany after volunteering to serve in the newly desegregated Army. Despite proving to be one of the most intelligent and capable men, he is denied the assignments he hopes for because racism continues to permeate through the higher ranks. While planning to return to the U.S. to reunite with his first love, he meets and forms a connection with a married German woman whose husband had been imprisoned.

Keeper of Lost Children by Sadeqa Johnson is a moving story that shines a light on events following World War II. The three storylines are all highly engaging, and the connection between all the characters eventually becomes clear. Ethel Gather is inspired by the real-life journalist and civil-rights activist Mabel Gammer, whose "Brown Baby Plan" facilitated the adoption of German children into American families. A sign of a compelling historical novel is its ability to prompt learning more after the book has ended. Johnson incorporated factual elements, such as a scene where a boy tried to scrub off the brown in his skin to look like the lighter-skinned children. A truly heartbreaking scene. And a book not to be missed.

Many thanks to 37 Ink | Simon & Schuster for the advance.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars.

Historical Fiction.

Publication Date: February 10, 2026.

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