The late Walter Dean Myers was the 2012-2013 National Ambassador for Young People's Literature. He was the critically acclaimed New York Times bestselling author of an award-winning body of work which includes Somewhere in the Darkness, Slam!, and Monster. Mr. Myers has received two Newbery Honor medals, five Coretta Scott King Author Book Awards, and three National Book Award Finalist citations. In addition, he was the winner of the first Michael L. Printz Award.
Gr 8 Up-Walter Dean Myers tells a compelling story (Scholastic, 2008) about the Iraq War from the perspective of a young Civil Affairs soldier. Robin Perry, nephew of Richie (the main character from Myers's earlier book, Fallen Angels) heads to war full of vigor and hope to defend his country and prove to his parents that he is a man in his own right. The realities of war soon hit home, and Robin, known as "Birdy" to his unit, begins to wonder who his enemies really are in the war. He can't seem to see them in the faces of the women or children he meets along the way. He does, however, see their shadowy visages in the deaths and injuries his unit faces from roadside bombs and sniper attacks. Beautifully told to interest teens in the truths of war, without going into excessively violent or graphic detail, this wonderful book is enhanced by JD Jackson's superb reading. He conveys the emotional depth of the character with ease, drawing listeners into "Birdy's" doubts and fears and tugging them along into his heart palpitating near misses. The brilliance of the book is the balance of these moments with those that allow the young man and his team to relax, really connect with people, and grow into true heroes. An excellent book and an even better audiobook.-Jessica Miller, New Britain Public Library, CT Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information.
Here it is at last--the novel that will allow American teens to grapple intelligently and thoughtfully with the war in Iraq. Robin Perry, nephew of the soldier central to Myers's Vietnam novel Fallen Angels, has joined up because, as he fumblingly writes to his uncle on the eve of the invasion in 2003, "I felt like crap after 9-11 and I wanted to do something, to stand up for my country." Massing in Kuwait, assigned to a Civil Affairs unit, he finds that his motives continue to elude him as he assesses his fellow soldiers, all of whom seem tougher, braver, better directed. Even as the author exposes Robin's ambivalent feelings and doubts, he re-creates the climate of the earliest days of the war, when victory seems definable and soldiers credibly talk in March or April of being home by Christmas. Robin serves more as a lens on the war than as a narrator whose voice surprises or compels the reader. His comrades, too, conform to type; rather than individuals, they are representatives of characters familiar to war movies and genre fiction: the soulful musician whose awareness of irony does not stop him from heroism; the medic who defies military protocol in her humanitarianism; the tough-talking gunner--female--who quips her way through danger. In this novel, the conventions are helpful: they ground the reader. For as the Civil Affairs unit moves from a mission of winning "hearts and minds" to having to apologize for the "collateral damage" of having bombed a school and killed children in the "fog of war," the characters realize they are in the middle of many wars, none of which they understand. Readers will get a sense of the complexities of the war, and of the ways the rank-and-file, as represented by Robin, are slowly drawn into covert or morally dubious engagement. The action builds toward a climax that is affecting despite being easily foreseen. At the end, when Robin writes his uncle one last letter, asking, "[A]re there really enough words to make [kids] understand [about war]," the book itself dares readers to lift that question off the page; it is a forceful bid for their hearts and minds. Ages 12-up. (May) Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information.
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