August 15, 2014
The fifth installment in Lynch's Vietnam series continues the story of four friends who entered the war together and have now been forever changed by it. Though Volume 4, Casualties of War (2013), seemed to have concluded the series, Lynch again takes readers into the minds and souls of Morris, Rudi, Beck and Ivan. Once Rudi was drafted, it was Morris' idea that the four friends would go to Vietnam together, each in a different branch of the service, and somehow keep an eye on one another. Now Rudi has been killed, and Morris goes home as his body escort. Morris feels guilty for forcing everyone into this, and now he's trying to discern meaning from their experience of death in a war they never really understood. This volume continues the first-person narratives in the voices of the four friends, even Rudi's, though now his is a ghostly voice, a questionable contrivance at first but one that ultimately make sense in the overall arc of the story; each of the characters is haunted, and the only meaning they can make is that "You don't have to believe in the war, to believe in the guys." If there's not a tidy conclusion, it's because the fate of the walking wounded is inscrutable. A powerful antidote to those who would glorify war. (Historical fiction. 10-14)
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October 1, 2014
Gr 5 Up-Four best friends all sign up to fight during the Vietnam War. Though they promise to come home together, one friend doesn't survive and the remaining three must grapple with the truth about his death. The narrative switches among the various first person perspectives-even that of Rudi's ghost. A haunting and unsettling series that tempers the violent aspects of war just enough for the audience, without sacrificing the bitter and heartbreaking emotional truths.
Copyright 2014 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
January 1, 2015
Previous installments featured the perspectives of four friends as they experienced the Vietnam War in different branches of the military. Here they come together to mourn the loss of one of them, the remaining three each grappling with secrets surrounding his death. As with other books in this series, the emotional complexities and violence of war are handled with sensitivity and grace.
(Copyright 2015 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)