Instead of playing his beloved Game Boy, wisecracking Stonewall Hinkleman spends his weekends reluctantly playing bugle boy at the Civil War reenactments to which his lame and geeky parents insist on dragging him. If that wasn’t bad enough, he’s soon hauled into actual battle by none other than the real Stonewall Jackson, who tricks his young namesake into going back in time to the Battle of Bull Run. Stonewall must follow a South-will-rise-again fanatic named Nathan Bedford Dupree and thwart his plans to change the course of the Civil War so that the South wins. Why doesn’t Stonewall Jackson side with Dupree? Because he has come to “understand the extraordinary injustice of slavery,” of course. When Stonewall Hinkleman meets his Hinkleman ancestor and gets to know some other soldiers, the sharp lines between right and wrong finally blur a little, but never as much as one would expect in a work that dares to take on this morally tangled premise. A fast-paced, on-the-preachy-side time-travel adventure that could, almost despite itself, spark some fascinating discussions. (Fantasy. 10-14)
Pub Date: April 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-8037-3179-0
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2009
Poignant, respectful, and historically accurate while pulsating with emotional turmoil, adventure, and suspense.
In the midst of political turmoil, how do you escape the only country that you’ve ever known and navigate a new life? Parallel stories of three different middle school–aged refugees—Josef from Nazi Germany in 1938, Isabel from 1994 Cuba, and Mahmoud from 2015 Aleppo—eventually intertwine for maximum impact.
Three countries, three time periods, three brave protagonists. Yet these three refugee odysseys have so much in common. Each traverses a landscape ruled by a dictator and must balance freedom, family, and responsibility. Each initially leaves by boat, struggles between visibility and invisibility, copes with repeated obstacles and heart-wrenching loss, and gains resilience in the process. Each third-person narrative offers an accessible look at migration under duress, in which the behavior of familiar adults changes unpredictably, strangers exploit the vulnerabilities of transients, and circumstances seem driven by random luck. Mahmoud eventually concludes that visibility is best: “See us….Hear us. Help us.” With this book, Gratz accomplishes a feat that is nothing short of brilliant, offering a skillfully wrought narrative laced with global and intergenerational reverberations that signal hope for the future. Excellent for older middle grade and above in classrooms, book groups, and/or communities looking to increase empathy for new and existing arrivals from afar.
Poignant, respectful, and historically accurate while pulsating with emotional turmoil, adventure, and suspense. (maps, author’s note) (Historical fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: July 25, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-545-88083-1
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2017
PROFILES
An outstanding new edition of this popular modern classic (Newbery Award, 1961), with an introduction by Zena Sutherland and...
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1990
ISBN: 0-395-53680-4
Page Count: -
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2000
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