![]() ![]() The best thing about this novel was the gems of language and writing that popped up when I was least expecting them. She also has a mildly feminist agenda, but it doesn’t become overbearing or preachy. Wells says in the back of the book that part of her purpose in writing it was to reveal “the profound immorality of war.” She goes on to say, “Sometimes we must fight wars, but it is unforgivable to pump war full of glamour and glory.” I’m no pacifist, but I agree with Ms. And the descriptions of the war, of battlefields and prisons, and of atrocities are accurate and chilling. Still, the narrator and main character, India, is a delightful young lady and role model. And the one of the characters has a suspiciously modern knowledge of medicine and chemistry and bacteriology that would have made him somewhat prescient in the mid 1800’s. I also found it difficult to believe that a young girl in the South during the war was able through a series of fortunate connections to obtain medicines (aspirin?) from Europe that would cure fever since aspirin wasn’t really invented until the late 1800’s. The “holes” involve minor characters, namely India’s baby brother and her elderly grandfather, who have a tendency to disappear when they might interfere with the action. In spite of a couple of holes in the plot, I thought Red Moon at Sharpsburg was one of the best Civil War novels written for young adults that I have read. The Moodys aren’t rich before the war begins, but they are comfortable with a home and a profitable business. It’s told from the point of view of a southern girl, India Moody, who lives in Northern Virginia with her family -her daddy, a harness maker, her mother, her little brother and her aged grandfather. Red Moon at Sharpburg is, as can be deduced, a Civil War novel. Wells has the ability to write and research and create a wstory and a world for young adults as vivid as the one created with very few words and pictures in her Max books. There’s a lot of nowhere threads that are designed to plug in some historical “facts” (included debunked misconceptions), but at least it’s not a lost cause nonsense book like I was used to reading as a kid.I know Rosemary Wells, and maybe you do too, as the author of the Max and Ruby picture books for young children. ![]() In some ways this book is really exciting, and in others it’s a mess. Here he settles down for a while and learns about life outside of the city and also looks to regain his lost courage. Now on the run, he runs afoul of the Rebel army who send him away and knowing he can’t go back to his army he heads west ending up in the mountains of Virginia, where he becomes friends with an older woman living by herself. Horrified at the thought that he might have killed him, Charley runs away in view of his entire regiment who label him Charley Skedaddle. In the fracas, Charley picks up a dead soldier’s rifle and fires into the enemy line hitting a Confederate soldier. Their first real battle comes with the battle of the Wilderness. The army also has fellow gang members and rivals, and as he learns to drum he picks up brotherly figures among the camp. In camp, officers place Charley with the drum corps and he begins learning the drumming commands necessary for battle. Later we learn the guy was drunk when he agreed, because at 12, there’s no specific use for someone like Charley. This man returns to New York one day and Charley sees him and the man tells him that he’s rejoining to get the bounty pay, and Charley convinces him to take him along. ![]() It’s 1864 and Charley’s older brother died last summer at the battle of Gettysburg, and the news was brought to the family alongside Johnny’s silver watch by a fellow New Yorker and regiment-mate. The second gang is the Irish gang in “Gangs of New York” but both were real. It’s a historical middle-grade novel published in 1987 about a boy from New York City who is in the gang “The Bowery Boys,” a real gang who’s primary rival in the city was “The Dead Rabbits”. This is a reread from a long time ago for me, and it’s of a type to be sure. ![]() “As he set the hatbox on a crate beside him, Charley Quinn heard the words in his head: “If you ever got to fight alone, Charley, me lad, get your back to the wall.” ![]()
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