Commies

Longtime readers of the blog will know that I am a fan of history and a fan of the author Avi.  So when I saw that the Reading Olympics book list had an Avi historical fiction I was pretty pumped.

Catch You Later Traitor is set during the Cold War, a little more modern than I like my history-but history nonetheless.  Pete Collison is a pretty typical 12 year old until rumors start to spread that his father is a Communist.  All of a sudden Pete is ostracized.  Nobody wants to play ball with him, nobody wants to sit next to him in school, parents are telling their children not to be friends with him.

Pete doesn't understand it. Why are people acting that way? His dad is a history professor, there's no way he's a Commie?  But then the FBI comes.  Pete is conflicted.  What if it's all true?  Then what?

Set in the not too distant history Catch You Later, Traitor is a sobering reminder that even today, as a society, we are quick to judge.  Too easily we lump people together and assume the whole group is bad.  How could American's treat each other like that?  The spying on your neighbor, the judgments, the mistrust.

Optimistically I want to say things are better now.  But are they really?  Or have we just replaced Commies with Muslims and Reds with Refugees?  I hope not.

Finding the truth...that's kids stuff.