Appealing to war-story aficionados, this fulsome telling feels thin.
An imprisoned American naval officer remains steadfast throughout his captivity in North Vietnam.
Shot down during a routine bombing run in 1965, naval aviator and white Alabama native Cmdr. Jeremiah “Jerry” Denton finds himself fighting on a completely unexpected front. Despite the persistence of his North Vietnamese captors, Denton clings to the American military’s Code of Conduct for captured service members. He and other senior officers hold strong against an onslaught of physical and psychological torture, organizing a growing number of POWs to maintain a sense of unity and morale. This incredible tale of endurance, which Townley explores at greater length in his adult title Defiant (2014), stands alone for avid readers of war stories. More critical readers, though, may look elsewhere for a more complex view of the conflict and its survivors. The author’s habit of noting race only in relation to the very few nonwhite prisoners mentioned, along with a tendency to attribute inconsistently stilted English dialogue to the Vietnamese interrogators, will trouble some. One randomly placed text feature on the POW-MIA movement by families at home and a few odd explanatory references distract from the narrative, which teeters at points from textbook to hagiography. Still, the inclusion of photos and maps will help keep genre fans reading.
Appealing to war-story aficionados, this fulsome telling feels thin. (maps, bibliography, endnotes, index) (Nonfiction. 12-18)Pub Date: March 26, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-338-25566-9
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Dec. 18, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
A superbly told, remarkable true story and an excellent addition to stories of civilian resistance in World War II.
A handful of Danish teens takes on the occupying Nazis is this inspiring true story of courageous resistance.
Unlike Norway, which was also invaded on April 9, 1940, the Danish government did little to resist German occupation. Some teenagers, like 15-year-old Knud Pedersen, were ashamed of their nation's leaders and the adult citizens who passively accepted and even collaborated with the occupiers. With his older brother and a handful of schoolmates, Knud resolved to take action. Naming themselves the Churchill Club in honor of the fiery British prime minister, the young patriots began their resistance efforts with vandalism and quickly graduated to countless acts of sabotage. Despite the lack of formal organization and planning, this small band of teenagers managed to collect an impressive cache of weapons and execute raids that would impress professionally trained commandos. The Churchill Club was eventually captured and imprisoned by the Germans, but their heroic exploits helped spark a nationwide resistance movement. As he did in Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice (2009), Hoose tells this largely unknown story with passion and clarity, providing exactly the right background information to contextualize events for readers. He makes excellent use of his extensive interviews with Pedersen, quoting him at length and expertly interweaving his words into the narrative to bring it alive.
A superbly told, remarkable true story and an excellent addition to stories of civilian resistance in World War II. (photos, bibliography, chapter notes) (Nonfiction. 12-18)Pub Date: May 12, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-374-30022-7
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: March 16, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2015
An excellent chronicle of the tragedy for a broad audience; children, teens, and adults will all be moved.
Following the stellar The Great American Dust Bowl (2013), Brown tells the story of Hurricane Katrina and its impact on New Orleans, beginning with “a swirl of unremarkable wind” in “early August, 2005” and ending with the observation that “By 2012, only 80 percent of New Orleans’s residents had returned.”
Artwork with the high quality of early Disney animation—strongly drawn figures against electrically charged watercolor backgrounds—seamlessly co-tells a dramatic tale with text that ranges from simple, factual sentences to quotations from an extensive collection of books and media. The text and artwork clearly reveal two separate but inextricably connected horrors: devastation caused by a high-category hurricane and the human responsibility that lay behind the nightmarish scenarios. The book is fast-paced and hard to put down, sequential panels used to perfect advantage. A couple is shown in rising water in their home, scratching a hole through their roof to safety. Later, a crowd of 15,000 waits, without supplies, in a fetid convention center, for impossibly slow help to arrive. “Mayor Nagin is never seen there.” The final frame of that series depicts a woman on her knees, crying out, “Help us!” In addition to quoting and contextualizing such now-infamous sayings as, “Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job,” the book pays homage to the heroism of many, both professionals and volunteers.
An excellent chronicle of the tragedy for a broad audience; children, teens, and adults will all be moved. (source notes, bibliography) (Graphic nonfiction. 12 & up)Pub Date: Aug. 4, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-544-15777-4
Page Count: 96
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: April 14, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2015
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