"That was the summer of the bicentennial, when all these things happened: my sister, Josie, began to hate our country and slapped my mother's face; my wild aunt, Nell, moved in with us, bringing along all five thousand or so of her records and a green record player that ran on batteries; my father started going back to Vietnam in his dreams, and I saw him cry; my mother did the Twist in front of the whole town and nearly lost us all."The abstract is hidden because it may contain spoilers. If you would like to read the full summary, simply use your cursor to highlight the next few lines and it will magically appear.
Abstract: In the summer of 1976, ten-year-old Eli Book's excitement over Bicentennial celebrations is tempered by his father's flashbacks to the Vietnam War and other family problems, as well as concern about his tough but troubled best friend, Edie.
Publisher: Candlewick Press; 295 pages
Publisher: Candlewick Press; 295 pages
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1 comment:
I didn't live in this era, but I could feel the palpable emotions that were so raw, so real in this book. It gave that war a face that I hadn't really seen in the historic texts-- the book actually alludes to the differences, I think. Strong characters, made stronger through their admissions of weakness.
And yet even though I didn't live that war, the noted parallels with Sept 11 were tangible. I'm so glad I read this book.
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