Five teens from a small Scottish town become caught up in the maelstrom of WWI. The story opens in 1915; the war has been going on for almost a year, and no one now expects a swift and easy victory. The wealthy and well-bred Charlotte Armstrong-Barnes defies her mother by taking up nursing to join the cause; her brother Francis does the same by refusing to take a commission. Storekeeper’s son John Malcolm Dundas looks forward to coming of age to join up, as does his younger brother Alex; meanwhile, sister Maggie begins to question the assumed role of women in society and starts to dream of greater things. The expected love interests ensue: Charlotte and John Malcolm fall head-over-heels, but their romance is cut tragically short by German fire; Francis and Maggie enjoy a slowly burgeoning relationship of the mind that becomes love as they take their separate parts in the struggle in France. New to the American market, Carnegie Medalist (Whispers in the Graveyard) Breslin’s narrative moves back and forth to give each character’s perspective, occasionally allowing them to speak directly via letters, but the two who come most to life are the theoretically inclined Francis and Maggie. Charlotte, having lost love early, takes on a virtually saintly mien, and Alex rarely emerges as his own character. A tendency to tell rather than show—“The jingoistic tones of the headlines contrasting with the constant news of death lowered [Francis’s] spirits. He felt helpless in the face of what he saw as some desperate intent by civilization to destroy itself . . . ”—keeps the reader at arm’s length and hinders involvement in what could have been a three-hanky story. As it is, it remains a perfectly serviceable historical novel, but nothing more. (Fiction. 12+)
Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2002
ISBN: 0-385-73015-2
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2002
A sparse, beautifully drawn story about a teen discovering her heritage.
In this YA graphic novel, an alienated Métis girl learns about her people’s Canadian history.
Métis teenager Echo Desjardins finds herself living in a home away from her mother, attending a new school, and feeling completely lonely as a result. She daydreams in class and wanders the halls listening to a playlist of her mother’s old CDs. At home, she shuts herself up in her room. But when her history teacher begins to lecture about the Pemmican Wars of early 1800s Saskatchewan, Echo finds herself swept back to that time. She sees the Métis people following the bison with their mobile hunting camp, turning the animals’ meat into pemmican, which they sell to the Northwest Company in order to buy supplies for the winter. Echo meets a young girl named Marie, who introduces Echo to the rhythms of Métis life. She finally understands what her Métis heritage actually means. But the joys are short-lived, as conflicts between the Métis and their rivals in the Hudson Bay Company come to a bloody head. The tragic history of her people will help explain the difficulties of the Métis in Echo’s own time, including those of her mother and the teen herself. Accompanied by dazzling art by Henderson (A Blanket of Butterflies, 2017, etc.) and colorist Yaciuk (Fire Starters, 2016, etc.), this tale is a brilliant bit of time travel. Readers are swept back to 19th-century Saskatchewan as fully as Echo herself. Vermette’s (The Break, 2017, etc.) dialogue is sparse, offering a mostly visual, deeply contemplative juxtaposition of the present and the past. Echo’s eventual encounter with her mother (whose fate has been kept from readers up to that point) offers a powerful moment of connection that is both unexpected and affecting. “Are you…proud to be Métis?” Echo asks her, forcing her mother to admit, sheepishly: “I don’t really know much about it.” With this series opener, the author provides a bit more insight into what that means.
A sparse, beautifully drawn story about a teen discovering her heritage.Pub Date: March 15, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-55379-678-7
Page Count: 48
Publisher: HighWater Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 28, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A well-researched and deeply moving portrait of an iconic moment in U.S. history.
A free-verse treatment of the killing of four college students during campus protests over the Vietnam War.
College campuses were often flashpoints in the struggle against the United States’ involvement in the Vietnam War. In May 1970, protestors at Kent State University in Ohio were met by the Ohio National Guard, culminating in the deaths of four unarmed college students and injuries to nine others. The university and the small town surrounding it were all affected by the escalating tensions and disagreement over how to handle the issues. The governor’s strict approach was welcomed by some but resisted by many on campus. Each of the deceased students is described in detail, including how they came to be in the line of fire. Readers hear from a guardsman and a town resident as well as students, their voices showing how perspectives differed depending on individuals’ roles. Especially compelling are the words of Black students, many of whom stayed away from the demonstration, believing, correctly, that the guardsmen had live ammunition. The structure serves to re-create the taut atmosphere of the days leading up to the tragedy, and various perspectives are represented by different fonts and typeface, furthering the sense of polarization. The extensive author’s note extends the narrative, engaging readers in the author’s process and the story’s impact.
A well-researched and deeply moving portrait of an iconic moment in U.S. history. (Verse novel. 12-18)Pub Date: April 21, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-338-35628-1
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Jan. 18, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2020
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
