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The Field Guide to ParentingChildren's BookstoreGreat Books to Read With and About the Children in Your Life
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War Is: Sodiers, Survivors, and Storytellers Talk About War
Edited by Marc Aronson and Patty Campbell, Candlewick Press
Hardcover--2008, paperback edition--2009.
In Patty Campbell's introduction, she clearly states that she is against war and intends this book will help young people with the decision to go to war or not, with the hope that they will choose peace instead. Both editors sought experienced and honest accounts from people who know--soldiers, war reporters, and military families. Marc Aronson believes that war is a fact of life, and that in hating war, it's "too easy to avoid really looking at the war itself...Make of this book what you will, but at least you will have heard directly from those who have faced the fire."
In addition to information necessary to making a decision about going to war, this material acknowledges the sacfrices and costs of those who have served in an effort to fulfill our responsibility to hear and care for them. These powerful voices cut throught the myths of the romance of war to offer a difficult, sometimes excrutiating reality that is anything but clear-cut or one-sides. A staff sargeat interviewed in the peice, "In Order to See Beauty in Life, I Had to See Hell," says:
Life is about service; that is the lesson you find in war. you serve your buddies in combat, or you serve at home. You serve wherever the hell yo go. That is what makes life worth living.
War Is includes a wide variety of voices and formats by design: first person accounts, men, women, a Nagaski survivor, a Vietnam vet, an army chaplain, interviews, press stories, a prayer, a song, a one-act play, a "miliblog" of writings from Iraq, and a selection of compelling columns by the Pulitzer Prize-winning WWII reporter, Ernie Pyle. The pieces are arranged into broad areas such as "Experiencing War" and "The Aftermath of War." This one seemingly small volume is huge in scope and rich in perspective.
Substantial, valuable, significant, highly relevant, and perhaps even urgent or vital to everyone in the United States, but especially for young men and women contemplating service during war time.
Falling Hard: 100 Love Poems by Teenagers
Edited by Betsy Franco
Candlewick, 2008
Compiled from young poets of all kinds from all over the U.S.
and some from outside, Falling
Hard is, among other things,
honest, unfettered and free. This rare book of love poetry and
all its pangs, is by teenagers, about teenagers, for teenagers.
It is no surprise that the poets feel deeply, sometimes with
conflicting emotions; the depth is right there in the poems
themselves. Metaphor and literary reference show an
understanding of the art form and its connections to other areas
of life and art.
Consider this exerpt from "The Chronicles of Love" by Anthony
Hill:
Love is when the heart ruptures into an abyss
of indefinite definitions of perplex emotion.
Caricatures of one's self sharpen like a pencil
that sketches the faces of many....
Is there are universal raffle?
Perhaps names are shaken in the Dipper among the stars;
all the things that one would denounce in others are forgiven
with a soft forbearance candidly expressed through the heart.
Some will make you cry, like the beautiful "The Pond is Dry Now," some are startling, and some just make you want to hold the poet close, but all will touch your heart and soul, and make you feel priviledged to have been allowed in this tender place.
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Visions in Poetry Series
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Book Announcements Click on any book cover for more information at Amazon. New Publisher Launches Debut List of Teen Fiction in Spring 2009      West Side Books novels for teens intend to be edgy, compelling, diverse, current, and realistic but with humor. Watch for Between Us Baxters by Bethany Hegedus and Seattle Blues by Michael Wenberg out in February, followed this spring by:
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