A sweet tale of friendship that will educate readers about life in a Civil War camp.
In Leppo’s debut YA novel, a teenage boy from 2012 time-travels 150 years into the past and becomes a drummer in the Union army.
For young Josh, an extended vacation full of chores in rural Tennessee sounds like a complete nightmare. Following his father’s death, Josh’s mother took the family—which also includes his sister, Evie—to their aunt and uncle’s historic inn, promising to help the older couple refurbish the building. Despite his initial reservations, Josh becomes charmed by the inn’s residents, who like to share tales of history. One night, he hears a strange drumming sound and encounters a young man named Tobias (nicknamed “Toby”) in the inn’s basement; he later realizes that it’s the ghost of his ancestor, whose father was anti-slavery and fought for the Union. After several encounters with Toby, Josh finds himself transported back to 1862, where he embarks on a quest to enlist in the Union army as a drummer boy. Leppo relates the Civil War-era narrative from a modern perspective that allows her to make commentary that may make the story feel more relevant to the book’s young audience. When Toby marvels at modern-day technological conveniences, Josh remarks, “Even though we have lots of things that make life easier, your life now is a whole lot less complicated….Where I come from most people spend all day at work or school, and families hardly see each other.” Although the book’s prose is straightforward and easy to read, it begins slowly and is somewhat heavy with exposition. However, once Josh joins Toby in the past, it’s difficult not to become invested in their fates. The characters in the Union camp are endearing, and scenes of army life are informative and intriguing. The time that Josh spends in battle is minimal and the descriptions aren’t overtly graphic, but Leppo does convey the grisly nature of war through conversations with affected characters. The story glosses over the logistical problems inherent in time-travel pieces, hinging the plot on supernatural forces. The ending is satisfying enough, however, to excuse any potential paradoxes.
A sweet tale of friendship that will educate readers about life in a Civil War camp.Pub Date: Jan. 29, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-9998798-0-1
Page Count: 326
Publisher: AllieBee Publishing
Review Posted Online: Nov. 13, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her...
Another middle-aged mom in a muddle.
After years of false starts and big hopes, Elizabeth’s ruggedly handsome husband Jack, a former football star, just landed a spot as a sportscaster on national news. He still loves her, even though much younger women are giving him come-hither looks. Heck, he doesn’t want to betray the love of his life after she helped him kick drugs and stuck by him even when he was a struggling has-been. And won’t it seem hypocritical if he fools around with his sexy assistant while he does in-depth reporting on a rape case involving a famous basketball center? Well, he fools around anyway. Elizabeth, nicknamed Birdie, knows nothing of this, but she withdraws from Jack when her hard-drinking, salt-of-the-earth father has a stroke and dies. Now no one will call her “sugar beet” ever again. Time to return home to Tennessee and contend with Anita, the sort-of-evil stepmother so trashy she wears pink puffy slippers all day long. Naturally, it turns out that Anita actually has a heart of gold and knows a few things about Birdie’s dead mother that were hushed up for years. Mom was an artist, just like Birdie, and an old scandal comes to light as Anita unrolls a vibrant canvas that portrays her secret lover. Perhaps, Birdie muses, her mother died of heartbreak, never having followed her true love or developed her talent. Has she, too, compromised everything she holds dear? Hoping to find out, Birdie joins a support group that promises to reconnect confused women with their passion. She and Jack separate, prompting a how-dare-you fit from their grown daughters. Will Birdie fly her empty nest? Will she go back to college for a degree in art? Will her brooding watercolors ever sell?
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her previous tales (Summer Island, 2001, etc.).Pub Date: July 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-345-45071-X
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2002
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