Publishers Weekly
- Publisher's Weekly
The Collier brothers ( My Brother Sam Is Dead ) here paint a strong, affecting picture of the Civil War era, of the grueling work and privations of the home front as well the chaos and carnage of the battlefield. When Pa is wounded in action in 1864 and comes home to die, he extracts a promise from Johnny, the book's 14-year-old narrator, to stay on their farm in Virginia and look after the family. But a few months after Pa's death, Johnny undertakes a dangerous mission to bring food into besieged Richmond--and maybe avenge his father's honor. Instead, he and the family's team of mules are captured by Blue Coats; even worse (to him), the soldiers are black, and the youth suffers the ignominy of taking orders from a former slave his own age, Cush Turner. At first Johnny takes advantage of his captor's kindliness, but ultimately he becomes friends with Cush and even saves his life. When the war ends, Cush and Johnny set off toward home together, the latter observing, ``For sure it is going to be a long time before kids of slaves and kids of slave owners will be able to sit together at the table of brotherhood,'' but adding that staying friends is worth a try. The sensitive treatment of this unlikely relationship recalls Patricia Calvert's equally fine novel, Bigger . Ages 10-up. (Sept.)
The ALAN Review
- Charles R. Duke
While trying to transport food to the Confederate troops, young Johnny is captured by a Yankee - Cush, a runaway slave. Although Johnny has trouble accepting Cush as his equal, eventually the two come to appreciate each other, and Johnny ends up rescuing Cush when he is captured by the Rebels. The story highlights the division between whites and blacks at the time of the Civil War, but it also shows in a very human way how such differences can be overcome when survival becomes a common bond. The narrative moves quickly, and the events that bring the characters together are historically true. Though the book contains some racial slurs, the authors provide a clear historical context for their presence in the story. Boys age ten and above should find this a fast-moving, thought-provoking story about the Civil War and about the role that race played in it.
School Library Journal
Gr 6-9-Like Patricia Beatty's Turn Homeward, Hannalee (Morrow, 1984) and Paul Fleischman's Bull Run (HarperCollins, 1993), this title gives readers a vivid portrayal of the Civil War. Johnny, 14, promises his dying father that he'll stay on their Virginia farm with his mother and younger sisters. The opportunity to strike a blow against the Union Army is irresistible, however, and the boy convinces his mother to let him join a wagon train carrying food to Confederate soldiers. He has been brought up to believe that all blacks are stupid; thus, when captured by a black Union soldier about his age who insists that Johnny teach him to read, he deliberately tricks him. Reaching the Union camp, Johnny is surprised when Cush saves him from imprisonment; as the novel concludes, he saves Cush's life. Richly drawn, the two boys exhibit many of the foibles found in people everywhere, and their developing friendship is believable. Authentic battle scenes add spice to the story. A two-page foreword discusses the use of the word ``nigger'' in the book. Sure to become popular.-Jo-Anne Weinberg, Greenburgh Public Library, NY
Hazel Rochman
We'd got to be friends by mistake. The theme of my enemy, my friend is at the core of this docu-novel of the Civil War. Johnny, 14, a young, white rebel soldier, is captured by a black Union soldier, Cush, a runaway slave. As they get to know each other in the mess and slaughter of battle and retreat, the two boys gradually lose their mutual distrust, and each risks his life to save the other. In a first-person narrative, Johnny describes his own change of heart from bigotry to the recognition that Cush is a person and that slavery is wrong. His own family was too poor to own slaves, but Johnny has been raised with the prevailing stereotypes about niggers. A preface entitled About the Use of the Word Nigger in This Book explains that historical accuracy requires the use of the term, that many of the kinds of people portrayed here would have used that term, and no other. It's the large canvas that will draw readers to the story, especially the facts about the battles in all their confusion and terror, though there is also some sense of the Southern kid who's not at all sure what he's fighting for. And no easy comfort is offered; whatever the outcome of the war, Cush and Johnny know that racism is still a bitter reality.
