Within a few hours, fifteen year old Adam Cooper became a man during the battle of Lexington in 1775. The story is a familiar one, but as told here, shorn of the glamor of remembered verse, realistic, unlovely, there is a sudden awakening to the horror and meaninglessness and confusion of war. Superbly told, through the half-vision of a boy, this has a compassionate quality of stark simplicity that makes memorable reading for all ages.