Seven Wings to Glory is an outstanding book. The reader is re-introduced to characters from Johnnie Come Lately, and also introduced to a few new characters, as well: Arty, Ladybird, Jordan, and Roosevelt among them. In this second book, we get a fuller picture of "Queen" Victoria, but just now as I type these words, I feel a little guilty. I wonder if Victoria will be hurt when she reads this.And that is the expert skill of Kathleen Rodgers' writing: the characters are not simply fictional characters. To the reader, they become people, living, breathing people with all their oddities and eccentricities; their joys and sorrows, their pain and happiness. I was transported back into a military family I'd learned about in Johnnie Come Lately, and as their story continued in Seven Wings to Glory, I felt as if I were visiting with old friends, but with friends suffering the new and recent pain of sending their son off to war. I was enmeshed in their lives.This is a story you don't want to miss. It is expertly written, a superb read, a social commentary on war, poverty, racism, love, and forgiveness, and a chance to reconnect with beloved characters from the first book. Well done, Kathleen. To the reader: one box of tissues should suffice.