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The Lisbon Letter Hunters
by My Book Hub Team
An illustrated historical book for ages 9-12. Read the first pages free, then join to read it all.
Genre: historical
For ages 9-12
A peek inside
In the foggy backstreets of Lisbon in 1940, eleven-year-old Mateo Bruma pulled his patched wool coat tighter around his shoulders. The city stayed quiet and careful while war raged far away. Portugal held a strange kind of peace called neutrality. Ships came and went. People whispered in many languages. Mateo loved exploring alleys where laundry hung like pale flags between the buildings. One evening he heard a soft crackle from an upstairs window. It was not music. It sounded like someone searching the air for a voice that would not answer. He stood still and listened harder than he ever had before. Something about that lonely signal pulled at his curious heart.
The next afternoon Mateo returned to the same narrow street. A girl sat on a stone step with a small notebook on her knees. She had dark braids and sharp, watchful eyes. Her coat looked thin for the damp air. When Mateo asked if she had heard the crackling sound, she nodded once. Her name was Lia. She had come to Lisbon with her family after leaving her home far to the east. She barely spoke at first, yet her gaze followed every moving shadow. Mateo offered her half of his warm bread roll. After a long pause she accepted it. Together they watched fog curl around the lamp posts like soft gray ribbons. Lia pointed upward toward a silent window. The radio signal had faded, but both children felt sure it would return.
