This short, historical fiction tells the story of the first battle of the Civil War from the perspective of 16 narrators from all walks of life and both sides of the Mason Dixon line. By weaving together so many narrative perspectives in short, one or two page increments, author Paul Fleischman paints a rich, if sometimes disjointed, portrait of a divided nation on the brink of war.
Early in the book, I made the choice not to list the characters and their backstories, though it might have made for a little bit more cohesive read. Instead, I found myself backtracking a little and trying to keep track of which narrative voice was whose on a lot of occasions.
Some of my favorite characters were Shem Suggs, an illiterate southern man who joins the cavalry because of his love for horses, and Gideon Adams, a light-skinned black man who shaves his head to pass as white in order to join the Union army. I looked forward to reconnecting with these characters each time their turn came up to narrate the story in its march toward war.
The battle scenes in this short book do depict a bloody encounter that fortells a longer, more brutal war than most of the characters seem to expect in the pages leading up to the first canon fire. Although it is a little on the rough side, the book is accessible to readers from 5th grade and up, and deals appropriately with tough issues like death, child abuse, slavery, and racial discrimination. I would recommend this as an excellent fiction text for students studying this part of American history.
No comments:
Post a Comment