SPEARHEAD (ADAPTED FOR YOUNG ADULTS)

Skilled tank gunners face off on opposite sides of the war but complementary sides of history in this young readers’ adaptation of the 2019 original.

Throughout the European theaters of World War II, the Americans tended to have the numerical and tactical advantages, but in Makos’ dogged focus on the particulars of tank warfare, the Germans are undeniably formidable in their Panzer tanks, and everyone knows it. By the time new Pershings roll out to replace the old American Sherman tanks in early 1945, the tides of the war have been shifting toward an Allied victory, but the path remains precarious and bloody. While ample attention is given to the machinery of war, the biographical accounts of the men of the 3rd Armored Division, their lives before the war, and the relationships they develop give a terribly violent account some humanity. Still, war is difficult, and the level of detail in this account, based, among other sources, on interviews with American and German veterans, is gruesome at times. Makos details the German soldiers’ and civilians’ resentment of the Nazi Party by this point in the war and several instances of pro-American sentiments in their ranks, which draw stark attention to the pointlessness of it all. Passing mention is made of segregation in the U.S. military; the individuals at the heart of this story are White.

A detailed and compelling war account for those with the stomach for it.