At Last She Stood: How Joey Guerrero Spied, Survived, and Fought for Freedom
by Erin Entrada Kelly
Intermediate, Middle School    Greenwillow    208 pp.
5/25    9780063218901    $19.99
e-book ed.  9780063218925    $9.99

When Josefina Veluya Guerrero (1917–1996), known as Joey, was a little girl in the town of Lucban in the Philippine Islands, Joan of Arc was her hero. A devoted Catholic, she “wanted to serve her faith and walk through battlefields” like Joan. And, as Kelly’s excellent nonfiction debut delineates, she did just that. As WWII begins, Guerrero is a young mother suffering from leprosy, but she joins the resistance movement and spies on the actions of Japanese soldiers, writes reports, delivers messages, and attends to injured fighters. When it is rumored that the Japanese military intends to slaughter prisoners in the Santo Tomas internment camp, she undertakes a tortuous forty-mile journey on foot to deliver an essential map to the U.S. Army’s Thirty-Seventh Division headquarters. After the war, Guerrero’s story continues at Carville, a leprosarium in Louisiana where she spends nine years. It’s a large stage to set, and Kelly provides thorough historical context for it all—many sidebars for information about the war and leprosy, as well as abundant archival photographs and maps, all while attempting to keep Guerrero’s narrative, related in immediate-sounding present tense, in the foreground. A fitting tribute to a fascinating figure. Back matter includes an author’s note, further resources, source notes, an extensive bibliography, and an index (unseen).

From the July/August 2025 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.