In "Victory Over Japan," third-grader Rhoda Manning recounts a series of incidents that occurred at school and at home during the final months of World War II. As the story opens, a fellow classmate named Billy Monday has been bitten by a pet squirrel and must undergo a series of painful rabies shots. The daily ritual, in which the child is escorted from the classroom by his mother and the school principal, Mr. Harmon, turns the shy boy into the center of attention.

Rhoda's curiosity and her desire to capitalize on the sensational aspects of Billy's experience make her determined to interview Billy for the school newspaper. She had previously scored a journalistic coup with her revelation that Mr. Harmon had suffered shell shock during World War I; she was, she bragged, the only third-grader whose story was published that year.

Rhoda's initial overtures to Billy...