This is the story of Johanna, a young American girl trapped in Holland at the outbreak of World War II.

"Never, never," she vows, "will I look a German soldier in the face."

But German soldiers occupy the town where she lives; a German officer is quartered in her grandfather's house.

Bitterly Johanna clings to her promise, dropping her eyes in the officer's presence, closing her ears to the lonely strains of his flute. Her hopes and fears are centered on the Little Riders, metal figures of crusaders which march around the church steeple and which come to symbolize freedom not only for her but for the entire town.

It is when the Little Riders themselves are threatened that Johanna learns courage and the still more important lesson that even in war a
person may rise above indiscriminate hatred.

The Little Riders is an unusually sensitive story told with warmth and understanding.

From the dust jacket