NC author.
Wonderful historical fiction from the military perspective on VietNam but through the eyes of Jamie whose brother TJ enlists in the Army. The Colonel is in charge of signing orders to send young men to VietNam. His daughter Jamie has never really thought about what that means because she is Army through and through, as is the Colonel, and that means you do things the Army way. Brother TJ sends back letters to the Colonel and his wife but sends Jamie a roll of unexposed film with no explanation. She learns how to develop film down at the base recreation center where she volunteers and discovers that her brother is sending her picture after picture of the moon.
A great work to use for a discussion of symbolism and for point of view. We often hear about how people outside the war protested but not about how the people fighting the war felt. Grades 6-8. Possibly younger.
3/02/2009
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Second. In 155 pages, this little novel manages to convey many of the complexities of the Vietnam War. The main character, a 12 year old girl, first supports wholeheartedly her beloved brother's enlistment in a medical corps in Vietnam. After all, her father is an important officer in the military and the family has always been more than patriotic. Then she develops a friendship with an enlisted man who becomes her surrogate brother, and she begins to see, via her brother's photographs, what war really means. A beautifully written examination of the effects of war on families.
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