A powerful antidote to those who would glorify war.
The fifth installment in Lynch’s Vietnam series continues the story of four friends who entered the war together and have now been forever changed by it.
Though Volume 4, Casualties of War (2013), seemed to have concluded the series, Lynch again takes readers into the minds and souls of Morris, Rudi, Beck and Ivan. Once Rudi was drafted, it was Morris’ idea that the four friends would go to Vietnam together, each in a different branch of the service, and somehow keep an eye on one another. Now Rudi has been killed, and Morris goes home as his body escort. Morris feels guilty for forcing everyone into this, and now he’s trying to discern meaning from their experience of death in a war they never really understood. This volume continues the first-person narratives in the voices of the four friends, even Rudi’s, though now his is a ghostly voice, a questionable contrivance at first but one that ultimately make sense in the overall arc of the story; each of the characters is haunted, and the only meaning they can make is that “You don’t have to believe in the war, to believe in the guys.” If there’s not a tidy conclusion, it’s because the fate of the walking wounded is inscrutable.
A powerful antidote to those who would glorify war. (Historical fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Oct. 28, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-545-64013-8
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: July 28, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2014
Despite the stale fat-to-curvy pattern, compelling world building with a Southern European, pseudo-Christian feel,...
Adventure drags our heroine all over the map of fantasyland while giving her the opportunity to use her smarts.
Elisa—Princess Lucero-Elisa de Riqueza of Orovalle—has been chosen for Service since the day she was born, when a beam of holy light put a Godstone in her navel. She's a devout reader of holy books and is well-versed in the military strategy text Belleza Guerra, but she has been kept in ignorance of world affairs. With no warning, this fat, self-loathing princess is married off to a distant king and is embroiled in political and spiritual intrigue. War is coming, and perhaps only Elisa's Godstone—and knowledge from the Belleza Guerra—can save them. Elisa uses her untried strategic knowledge to always-good effect. With a character so smart that she doesn't have much to learn, body size is stereotypically substituted for character development. Elisa’s "mountainous" body shrivels away when she spends a month on forced march eating rat, and thus she is a better person. Still, it's wonderfully refreshing to see a heroine using her brain to win a war rather than strapping on a sword and charging into battle.
Despite the stale fat-to-curvy pattern, compelling world building with a Southern European, pseudo-Christian feel, reminiscent of Naomi Kritzer's Fires of the Faithful (2002), keeps this entry fresh. (Fantasy. 12-14)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-06-202648-4
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2011
Well-educated American boys from privileged families have abundant options for college and career. For Chiko, their Burmese counterpart, there are no good choices. There is never enough to eat, and his family lives in constant fear of the military regime that has imprisoned Chiko’s physician father. Soon Chiko is commandeered by the army, trained to hunt down members of the Karenni ethnic minority. Tai, another “recruit,” uses his streetwise survival skills to help them both survive. Meanwhile, Tu Reh, a Karenni youth whose village was torched by the Burmese Army, has been chosen for his first military mission in his people’s resistance movement. How the boys meet and what comes of it is the crux of this multi-voiced novel. While Perkins doesn’t sugarcoat her subject—coming of age in a brutal, fascistic society—this is a gentle story with a lot of heart, suitable for younger readers than the subject matter might suggest. It answers the question, “What is it like to be a child soldier?” clearly, but with hope. (author’s note, historical note) (Fiction. 11-14)
Pub Date: July 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-58089-328-2
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Charlesbridge
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2010
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