Publishers Weekly
In his YA debut, adult author House tells the story of a smalltown family reeling from the Vietnam War. The narrator, Eli Book, describes the summer of 1976, when he was 10 years old, with the hindsight and perspective that adulthood brings (“It's important that you know this: my mother was beautiful.... She must have driven the boys at the high school absolutely crazy”). Eli lives with his father (a traumatized Vietnam vet); his loving but distant mother; a rebellious teenage sister; and his outspoken antiwar activist aunt. The candid conversations between Eli and his best friend, Edie, underscore the turmoil in both of their households. House laces the book with references to Bob Seger and Happy Days, but keeps the focus on the family's crackling dynamics and Eli's struggle to make sense of them. There's subtle poetry at work in House's writing, and as the tension and summer months heat up (“The sun broiled on the sky, a living thing that pulsated and grew larger”), Eli comes to understand how love and forgiveness can overcome even the most deep-seated conflicts. Ages 12–up. (Sept.)
School Library Journal
Gr 7 Up—Southern writer Silas House brings the bicentennial summer to life in his elegantly crafted novel (Candlewick, 2009). Ten-year-old Eli Book has always been secure with his loving family, but during the searing summer of 1976, all that the boy holds dear begins to fall apart. His 16-year-old sister is beginning to rebel and arguments with their mother ricochet through the house. Eli's Aunt Nell has cancer and has come to stay with them. Worst of all, Stanton, Eli's strong and steady father who fought in Vietnam, is suffering the delayed trauma of war that puts the entire family at risk. Eli finds many answers in the letters his parents wrote while his father was in Vietnam, and by summer's end comes to a greater understanding of his complex family. House narrates, and his gentle Southern drawl and perfect pacing elevate a beautifully written novel to an extraordinary audiobook. This story is so well told that it could hold its own against that other great Southern novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. Young listeners will enjoy Eli's storytelling ability, while older ones will appreciate the story's deeper complexities. An essential purchase.—Tricia Melgaard, Centennial Middle School, Broken Arrow, OK
Kirkus Reviews
The summer of 1976 was when ten-year-old Eli Book first knew his father, when he "first saw the war inching its way beneath his skin, behind his eyes." It was a summer destined for conflict, with his father home from Vietnam and suffering terrible nightmares that wrench him from his sleep and Eli's Aunt Nell, a famous antiwar protestor, come to live with the family. It was a summer when family secrets rose to the surface and Eli began to see the world in a new light. As in any good Southern novel, it's the well-drawn characters and rich setting-including the popular culture of the time (Laverne and Shirley, The Waltons, Bob Seger, Bob Dylan, Led Zeppelin)-that make this a memorable story. Though the prose is overwrought at times and House takes liberties with the conventions of point of view, it's an important story about war's hold on soldiers and their families. Readers will want to keep an eye out for future works by this talented writer. (Historical fiction. 12 & up)
From the Publisher
The story flows along as steadily as a stream, carrying readers and Eli to the end of summer and beyond, into a coda where he is an adult. Eli is good company and children will enjoy accompanying him on his journey.
—School Library Journal (starred review)
