The year is 1944, in the middle of World War II, and German prisoners of war held in rural areas of the South and Southwest are put to work in the agricultural and logging industries.
Twelve-year-old Mac Johnson lives in the Piney Woods of East Texas, where his father has a logging operation. Already angry with “those evil Nazis” who killed his brother, Donald, a pilot, young Mac's desire for revenge intensifies when his father is assigned POWs to help cut lumber—and one of the Germans looks exactly like Donald. Together, Mac and his best friend, Arlen, plot for revenge, but as plan after plan fails, Mac’s frustration and anger grow, along with his hatred.
When Mac gets a chance to be the whistle punk—to blow his whistle when a log is loaded on the skidder and the workers are safely away—he comes up with a foolproof plan to get even. Caught between his own desire for revenge and the friendliness of the German POW, Mac faces the most difficult decision of his life.
German POWs were stationed in East Texas, did work in the logging camps, and were, like the POWs in this novel, model prisoners who posed no threat to citizens. Whistle Punk is the story of what might have been between one American family and a group of POWs.
Chapin and Alice Ross grew up in East Texas during World War II; neither knew about the German POWs working in the region's logging camps, but both remember Jack Armstrong, the All-American Boy, whose radio programs are so important to Mac and Arlen.
