TWO GIRLS OF GETTYSBURG

Klein’s second novel offers a new take on the brother-versus-brother saga of the American Civil War. Teenage cousins Lizzie and Rosanna become firm friends when Rosanna moves to the small town of Gettysburg, Pa. After the war begins, however, Rosanna returns home to Virginia and impetuously marries a Confederate soldier; Lizzie finds herself running her father’s butcher shop after he and her brother join the Union army. Without quite meaning to, Rosanna becomes a camp follower and later a devoted army nurse; the cousins meet again as the battle of Gettyburg rages. Lizzie’s first-person narration carries more emotional weight than Rosanna’s somewhat distant journal entries, but none of the characters are developed strongly. The African-Americans, in particular, all seem rather like Mammy, cut from Good-Negro cloth, devoted to their white masters whether they are free or slave. But Klein’s account of the battle and its effect on civilian life is compelling, and makes this a worthwhile addition to Civil War literature. (Historical fiction. 12 & up)