Stephanie Sullivan: Review - Keeper of Lost Children

TITLE: Keeper of Lost Children

RATING: ★★★

RELEASE DATE: February 10th, 2026

Summary (from Goodreads): Lost in the streets and smoldering rubble of Occupied Germany, Ethel Gathers, the proud wife of an American soldier spots a gaggle of mixed-race children following a nun. Desperate to conceive her own family, she feels compelled to follow them to learn their story.

Ozzie Philips volunteers for the army in 1948, eager to break barriers for Black soldiers. Despite his best efforts, he finds the racism he encountered at home in Philadelphia has followed him overseas. He finds solace in the arms of Jelka, a German woman struggling with the lack of resources and even joy in her destroyed country.

In 1965, Sophia Clark discovers she’s been given an opportunity to integrate a prestigious boarding school in Maryland and leave behind her spiteful parents and the grueling demands. In a chance meeting with a fellow classmate, she discovers a secret that upends her world.

Toggling between the lives of these three individuals, Keeper of Lost Children explores how one woman’s vision will change the course of countless lives, and demonstrates that love in its myriad of forms—familial, parental, and forbidden, even love of self—can be transcendent.

REVIEW: I've been a fan of Sadeqa Johnson ever since I read her amazing novel Yellow Wife, so I knew going into her new book, Keeper of Lost Children, that it would be full of emotion, and I wasn't wrong. I've read a ton of historical books centered around World War II, with numerous different plots, but this subject matter was brand new to me. I've read countless stories about the Jewish children who were sent to live elsewhere during the war for their own safety, but this book details the struggles of the mixed race children during that time period, and this topic was a first for me. Sadeqa explains the real historical facts that inspired this book, and (as always) she did such a beautiful job with Ozzie, Sophia, and Ethel, the book characters whose lives were intertwined by such events. I have to say that Sophia was my favorite character because of her tenacity and strength, but I greatly admired Ethel too. I finished this book in just a couple of days because I didn't want to put it down, and I highly recommend it to everyone.

(DISCLAIMER: I received a complimentary copy of this title from NetGalley. All opinions expressed are entirely my own).