40 Fun Facts About Mare's War

In Mare's War, what does Mare drive across the country with her two teenage granddaughters?

A red sports car suits Mare, who also wears long fake nails and flippy auburn wigs. She is not ready to sit down and be old.

In Mare's War, what does Mare lie about so that the Women's Army Corps will accept her?

Her age is the lie: Mare is not quite seventeen when she runs away from home, years short of the Army's minimum for women.

In Mare's War, what does young Mare swing at the drunken man who comes into the girls' bedroom?

A hatchet is all Mare has to defend her younger sister, and the fight leaves her with a dislocated shoulder.

In Mare's War, Tali agrees to keep her earphones out if Mare gives up which habit?

Smoking is what Tali grumbles about before the car has left the driveway, so Mare promises to keep her pack in her purse.

In Mare's War, which record-breaking plant do the travelers find in Tombstone, Arizona?

A rosebush in Tombstone holds the world record for size, yet Octavia shrugs that it is still just a plant.

In Mare's War, what do Octavia and Tali write home that marks each jump between past and present?

Postcards to the folks back home separate the road-trip chapters from Mare's wartime memories.

In Mare's War, which animal does Octavia fear she will hit if she takes the wheel?

A jackrabbit does cross their path, and Mare does the safe thing by holding the car straight instead of swerving.

Which First Lady was persuaded to help win a role in Europe for the Black WACs of Mare's War?

Eleanor Roosevelt was lobbied by the educator Mary McLeod Bethune, who wanted Black women given meaningful Army jobs.

In Mare's War, in which city does Mare's battalion end its service, living lavishly in a hotel?

Paris is the last posting, where the women enjoy comforts unknown in their spartan Army quarters.

In Mare's War, in which Southern state does Mare grow up on a farm before running away?

Alabama is home: Mare is raised in the small town of Bay Slough, on land her late father bought.

In Mare's War, what is the name of the younger sister Mare has always been told to look after?

Josephine, known as Feen, stays on Mare's mind all through the war, because Mare has promised always to take care of her.

In Mare's War, to which Northern city is Mare's younger sister sent to live with an aunt?

Philadelphia is where Aunt Shirley lives, and with her sister gone Mare sees little reason to stay on the farm.

In Mare's War, what kind of shoes does Mare wear with her flippy wigs and push-up bras?

Stilettos and long fake nails mark Mare as no cookies-and-crosswords pensioner: she refuses to sit down and be old.

In Mare's War, what does Mare's mother fire to scare off the man who is attacking her daughter?

A shotgun blast sends the drunken boyfriend running, but only after he has already hurt Mare badly.

In Mare's War, who lays down the law and sends Octavia and Tali on the summer road trip?

Their parents insist on the trip, wrecking both girls' plans for a lazy summer at home.

In Mare's War, in which English city does the battalion first tackle warehouses of undelivered mail?

Birmingham held millions of stalled letters and parcels, and the real unit cleared them in three months instead of six.

Mare's War was named a 2010 Honor Book for which prize given by the American Library Association?

Coretta Scott King Award honor books carry the award's seal on the cover, and the prize goes to Black authors and illustrators of books for young readers.

In Mare's War, the road-trip chapters narrated by Octavia all carry which one-word heading?

Now marks every chapter Octavia narrates, while Mare tells her wartime chapters under the heading Then.

In Mare's War, which California city do Octavia and Tali call home before the road trip begins?

San Francisco is also where the author Tanita S. Davis was born, so the girls set out from her own home ground.

In Mare's War, what is the name of the lecherous boyfriend of Mare's mother whom both sisters fear?

Toby is the reason Mare's sister is sent north, after his lustful attention turns on both girls.

In Mare's War, which new recruit strikes a deal with Mare in training and becomes her fast friend?

Peaches Carter makes her offer after a captain corrects Mare's speech in front of everyone, and the friendship lasts a lifetime.

In Mare's War, which drink does 17-year-old Tali order that gets her into trouble?

Kahlua and cream holds only as much alcohol as vanilla, Tali argues, but the excuse does not save her.

In Mare's War, what job falls to Octavia in the car while Mare takes whichever exit she fancies?

Reading the map is Octavia's task, a thankless one beside a driver who prefers random exits and roadside surprises.

Houston's Emancipation Park, a stop in Mare's War, was bought by freed slaves to mark which holiday?

Juneteenth crowds were often refused public space, so in 1872 freed people in Houston pooled their money to buy land of their own.

Which oversized piece of furniture in Gulfport, Mississippi, features on the Mare's War road trip?

A rocking chair thirty-five feet tall stands in Gulfport, though it cannot rock because it is anchored to the ground.

In Mare's War, to which French city does the battalion move after clearing the backlog in England?

Rouen held letters up to three years old, and the women paraded there at the place where Joan of Arc was executed.

Which major commanded the real 6888th battalion that Mare joins in Mare's War?

Charity Adams ended the war as the highest-ranking Black woman in the Army, and Kerry Washington later played her on screen.

How did the real mail battalion of Mare's War tell apart soldiers who shared the same name?

By serial numbers: the women kept a card index that grew to seven million cards, since many parcels bore only a nickname.

Which filmmaker directed the 2024 Netflix film about the real battalion at the heart of Mare's War?

Tyler Perry wrote, directed and produced The Six Triple Eight, which reached screens fifteen years after the novel.

In Mare's War, what work is the only future left for Mare in Bay Slough before she runs away?

Cleaning a house for a white woman is all the town offers a girl of almost seventeen, so Mare enlists instead.

In Mare's War, what does the only letter Mare's mother sends her in the Army announce?

A marriage notice is the single reply Mare gets, though she writes home regularly and sends money every payday.

On the Mare's War road trip, which Arizona city has a tiny church and a swinging bridge to nowhere?

Yuma's McPhaul Bridge was finished in 1929 to span the Gila River, but no river runs beneath it today.

Before sailing for Europe, the real 6888th of Mare's War trained in which Southern state?

Georgia's Fort Oglethorpe was a major training center for the corps, and there Mare meets drinking fountains marked by race.

The Women's Army Corps that Mare joins in Mare's War first trained its recruits at which Army post?

Fort Des Moines in Iowa opened to the corps in July 1942, and Mare reports there for her own basic training.

The real 6888th of Mare's War crossed the Atlantic and came ashore near which Scottish city?

Glasgow is also where Tanita S. Davis lived while her husband finished his doctorate, years after she drafted the novel.

The motto of the real 6888th battalion in Mare's War warned that a lack of mail would damage what?

Morale was the stake named in the unit's motto, so the women worked in three shifts, seven days a week, to get letters moving.

Which national decoration did the real battalion behind Mare's War finally receive by law in 2022?

The Congressional Gold Medal was approved 76 years after the unit was disbanded with no public recognition at all.

Unlike Mare in Mare's War, the real relative whose story inspired Tanita S. Davis never did what?

She did not serve overseas: the author's grandmother had run away and enlisted, but her service kept her inside the United States.

An early draft of Mare's War was Tanita S. Davis's master's thesis at which California school?

Mills College saw only the wartime story: the present-day road trip with the granddaughters was written in later.

The Double V campaign in the Mare's War book club guide sought victory over fascism and what?

Racism at home was the second enemy: Black Americans pressed for a double victory, abroad and in their own country.