Boy-Like

The girls I nanny for are on vacation this week which means I have a lot more free time.  It also means I will be able to showcase a few Newbery books this week.  It took me quite awhile to get through Harold Keith's Rifles for Watie, but don't let that discourage you. I started this book at the very end of family vacation and between moving, starting a new semester and a new job it got a little lost in the shuffle but I finally got the chance to finish it this week.

Rifles for Watie tells the story of Jeff Bussy a young teen from Kansas who joins the Union Army during the Civil War.  Keith provides such a great insight into Bussy's personality and character and he does it in a way that is easy to read creating a text that just envelopes you.  Take this scene for example.  Jeff was out tending the cattle and would be out all day so his mom packed him a lunch, "but, boylike, he had eaten all the pone at ten o'clock int he morning and now he was hungry again."  By the end of the book this boy who couldn't wait to eat his lunch has become a decorated, well traveled solider with stories to tell and a...oh I can't tell you everything that happens but you will grow to love Jeff as you watch him grow up.

Jeff is in the army for an extended period of time before he every sees a battle.  And, boylike, he's pretty upset about it, "Just my luck [he says] I'll never get in a real fight." "That's what I'd call good luck youngster [says an older, wiser, and much beloved fellow solider]."  Jeff does see battle, but more than that he sees a lot of the country, he sees people with different beliefs, he sees the wisdom and foolishness of war, he sees the good and the bad on both sides but he doesn't let any of this change who he is.  What I loved most about this book was that Jeff didn't ignore what he saw, he thought about things and let his experiences develop his mind but he didn't every compromise his principles or character. His southern manners come through even when he is interactin wtih rebels-the enemy!  

My little brother is a marine and I often worry about how war can change a person.  Stories like Jeff's give me hope.  Hope that not every solider will come back broken, hope that even the hell of war can produce some positive experiences, and hope that you can come back better, stronger, but still the same person you always were. 

Staying true to yourself...that's kids stuff.