JULIET’S MOON

“At your age, all you should be worried about is clothes and boys and reading Moll Flanders,” Seth tells his 12-year-old sister, Juliet Bradshaw. But in 1863 Missouri, Juliet has seen too much: Her father was shot and killed; her house was burned to the ground by Yankee soldiers; she was jailed as a spy and the jail collapsed, killing several young women; and she killed one man to save another. She’ll have stories to tell her grandchildren, but coming of age in such a terrible time has been rough. Fortunately, Seth, who rides with William Quantrill’s renegade Confederate army, is a devoted protector, and their relationship is the heart of this moving story set in the midst of the Civil War. The drama of family, friendship and growing up is effectively rooted in the particulars of one time and place—a burned-out corner of Missouri—and thereby says volumes about what war does to people clinging to humanity and civilization. One of Rinaldi’s best. (“what happened next,” author’s note, bibliography) (Fiction. 10 & up)