civil war – The Dusty Jacket

Turn Homeward, Hannalee (J Historical Fiction)

Turn Homeward, Hannalee

Patricia Beatty (J Historical Fiction)

The Civil War has been raging for three years now. Twelve-year-old Hannalee Reed’s father died in an Army hospital last winter and her older brother was currently in Virginia fighting for the Confederacy. She and her little brother, Jem, spend their days working in the mill making cloth for the soldiers while her mother awaits the birth of her fourth child. When Union soldiers arrive in her hometown of Roswell, Georgia, they burn down the mill and gather all of the millworkers—charging each one with treason and sending them to Tennessee and Kentucky by train. Before Hannalee is taken away, her mother pulls a button from her blouse and tells her daughter, “Wherever you go, keep this to remind yourself to come home. Turn your heart to me. Turn homeward, Hannalee!” Despite the miles between them and the impossible odds that lie ahead of her, Hannalee made her mother a promise that she would find a way home again and that is what she intended to do.

Precious is the book that not only entertains the soul of a young reader, but also enlightens their mind as well. Patricia Beatty’s Turn Homeward, Hannalee is such a book. The first half of Beatty’s book is based on actual events that occurred in July 1864 when the Yankee cavalry arrived in Roswell, Marietta, and New Manchester, Georgia, rounded up nearly two thousand mill workers, and put them all on trains heading north to either work in Union mills or to provide household or farm help to northern families. Like most of the soldiers before them, most of these workers were never heard from again—their futures forever remaining a mystery. Although Beatty targets her book for readers aged ten and older, she doesn’t shy away from depicting the cruelty, ugliness, and inhumanity that comes with war. Hannalee and Jem get to witness first-hand the horrors of the battle of Franklin, which lasted only six hours but was a terrible defeat for the Confederacy. Hannalee described the bloody scene before her by uttering, “I reckoned it was like looking into hell, and I felt sick inside.”

Although Beatty provides readers with a lot of facts and details surrounding the war, her book reads less like a history lesson and more like a thrilling action and adventure story where a new danger or challenge awaits our fearless heroine at every turn of the page. And even though Hannalee Reed sprang from Beatty’s wonderful imagination, it would be nice to think that among the eighteen hundred Georgian mill workers that simply vanished from government records, that there were a few girls—like Hannalee Reed—who traveled hundreds of miles through battlefields and blood and who survived hunger and the elements to make their way back home. That they did all of this because they had made a promise to their mothers and that was a promise worth keeping.

Rating: 4/5

* Book cover image attributed to: www.amazon.com

A Million Shades of Gray by Cynthia Kadohata (J)

a million shades of gray

A Million Shades of Gray

Cynthia Kadohata (Juvenile Fiction)

Even at eleven years old, Y’Tin Eban knew what his future would look like: he would work with his elephant, Lady, until she died; he would travel to Ban Me Thuot then to Thailand and finally to America; and he would open an elephant-training school in Vietnam. But it’s 1975 and the American soldiers have been gone from Vietnam for two years now. Y’Tin and his tribe live in Central Highlands in South Vietnam and every day, soldiers from the north are advancing closer and closer to his village. The Americans called it the Vietnam War. His father called it the American War. And now, this war was coming to Y’Tin’s remote part of the country and everything that his future once promised is about to change forever.

It’s never easy to discuss the horror and ugliness of war, especially when that discussion involves a younger audience (this book is targeted for readers ages ten and older). Cynthia Kadohata is able to portray a country savagely torn apart by Civil War with remarkable honesty and sensitivity. Because she is dealing with younger readers, she avoids graphic details and opts for subtle clues and visuals that guide readers to the desired conclusion. For example, she describes a scene where captive male villagers are forced to dig a very long and deep pit on the outskirts of the village. Older readers know immediately that this is a mass grave and the outlook is bleak for the villagers. However, the younger reader shares the same learning curve as Y’Tin and both share in the eventual realization of what is actually taking place at the same time.

Several reviewers found this book to be too “anti-American” given the repeated mentions by the villagers of the Americans’ broken promise to return should assistance be needed. But Kadohata foregoes popularity points by choosing to give us a story based on the villagers’ perspective. They are a community that is scared, helpless, and feels very much abandoned and alone. It’s an honest representation of the many thousands who were facing certain annihilation by their own government. While this book deals mainly with war and its effects, at the heart is a young boy—rapidly thrown into manhood—and his relationship with his elephant, Lady. The mutual trust they have for one another and the formidable bond they share serve as the singular bright spot in what is often a rather dark and grim story.

The book’s title, A Million Shades of Grey, refers to the colors of the jungle right before sunrise, as well as the color of an elephant’s hide. In life, we often view things—view choices—as being a matter of “black or white”. Kadohata reminds us that things aren’t always that simple and that every day we face or own “million shades of gray”. At one time, Y’Tin said that you don’t love and you don’t make promises during times of war. But it took his village’s smallest but strongest elephant to show him otherwise…that even during war, it is possible to have both.

Rating: 4/5

* Book cover image attributed to www.publishersweekly.com

A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier (Biography) by Ishmael Beah

A Long Way Gone

A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier

Ishmael Beah (Adult Biography)

Ishmael Beah is a typical 12-year old boy. He enjoys rap music, practicing his dance moves, and playing soccer with his friends. But on one January day in 1993, what he and his brother and friends don’t realize as they head to Mattru Jong for a talent show, as that they will never be returning to their village of Mogbwemo again.

War has come to Sierra Leone. The adults call it a revolutionary war—a liberation of the people from a corrupt government. But why do the liberators kill innocent people? Why do they pillage and burn down the villages? Ishmael and his friends soon find themselves wandering from village to village searching for food, struggling for survival, and keeping one step ahead of the rebels. When they are captured by the government army, they are given a choice: join and fight or die.

Beah’s personal account of his years as a child soldier is horrifying and unimaginable. In his book, he says that it was his father’s words that kept him moving despite his weariness: “If you are alive, there is hope for a better day and something good to happen. If there is nothing left in the destiny of a person, he or she will die.”

It was hard reading Beah’s story and learning about his vile actions during war, his terrifying nightmares that made him fear sleep, and his addiction to marijuana and cocaine. Perhaps what is harder still is knowing that the practice of using children as soldiers in war still exists and remains rampant. But Beah gives us a story not just of tragedy, but of redemption and hope. When he is rescued by UNICEF and taken to a rehabilitation center, every day counselors and medical staff would say to him, “It’s not your fault.” After many months, the day finally came when he began to believe it. By forgiving himself, Ishmael Beah started to forge a new beginning for himself and began to share his incredible story with the world—a story that will hopefully bring awareness and change for the thousands of children still fighting in wars throughout the world.

Rating: 5/5

* Book cover image attributed to www.amazon.com