Braving the Fire [Audiobook] [Hardcover]

John B. Severance (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 10 and up | Grade Level: 5 and up

John B. Severance, whose latest biography was Einstein, Visionary Scientist, now turns his research skills and fine eye for detail to fiction. The last two years of the Civil War are the setting for this fast-paced story of a 15-year-old Maryland farm boy who joins the Union Army, despite being torn between loyalty to his father, a Union officer, and loyalty to his grandfather, a Confederate. When foraging Confederate soldiers burn down the barn on Jem’s land, he and his best friend go off on what they think will be a glorious adventure. But they are hardly prepared for the true face of battle as they fight the enemy—boys like themselves—in the woods and swamps, become part of the regiment proudly known as General Barlow’s Boys, march through blood-soaked cornfields, and witness death. Details of the soldiers’ daily life and vivid depictions of actual battles and historical figures are interwoven with bits of dark humor and even a touch of romance in this well-wrought novel that clearly shows there is no glory in war.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 7-10-Fourteen-year-old Jem is coming of age in Civil War Maryland. Every night there is an argument between his Confederate-sympathizing grandfather and his Unionist father. His friend Hank has no strong feelings beyond the desire to join the fight. "Think of the glory," he tells Jem. "We'll be heroes when we come home." After scavengers burn down the family barn, Jem has had enough, and he and Hank march off to join the Union Army. But there is little glory in their odyssey-just a lot of marching, digging, and dodging bullets. Comrades are mowed down around them, and Jem is seriously wounded. In an attempt to shoot his assailant, he kills Hank instead. The author drives home his theme with a heavy hand; the characters talk in speeches that are sometimes unbelievable for their age, even for those who have experienced war. All of this dialogue makes following the story and understanding the characters difficult; one often has to reread passages to understand what is happening or who is speaking. Much of the action takes place offstage, and is only later described. That said, this frank, realistic portrayal of soldiering might be a good novel to share with readers too caught up in the "romance" of war.
Elizabeth M. Reardon, McCallie School, Chattanooga, TN
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Gr. 7-12. In Maryland in 1863, teenage Jem can't wait to march off to glory in the Civil War, though he is not at all sure which side to fight for. He joins the Union Army. He thinks the Union should be saved, and maybe the slaves should be free, and he wants to be on the same side as Pa, though Grandpa is a fierce Confederate. Then suddenly he is in the midst of the slaughter, pain, and confusion. One Sunday Jem talks quietly to an enemy soldier across a field. Some days later a Rebel bullet tears a hole in Jem's thigh, and in the uproar, his friend is dead. With the historical details of actual battles, Severance sets Jem's coming-of-age against the brutal reality of war. There's excessive talk about the boy "becoming a man" and loose ends are too tightly tied up, but the quiet, strong words perfectly express the facts of the Civil War from the viewpoint of a boy in the ragged line of battle. Hazel Rochman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 10 and up
  
• Hardcover: 160 pages
• Publisher: Clarion Books (September 23, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 061822999X
• ISBN-13: 978-0618229994
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.7 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.3 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,686,797 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Can YA readers really brave the fire of war?, April 8, 2003

By 

"dgwosch" (Clemson, SC USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Braving the Fire (Hardcover)

The Civil War is in its climax, and Gem Bridwell, a fourteen-year-old boy, gets caught up in the "glory" of war that surrounds him in the small farming town of Gaithersburg, Maryland. Gem's father, a Union officer gets injured earlier in the war, but the call for duty by young men to take a stand to keep the Union in tact returns him to the battlefield. Trapped between his pa's love to keep America unified and Gem's grandfather's view that the southern way of life needs to be preserved, with the atrocities of war brought home to Gem, he runs off with his boyhood friend Hank to find the "glory" in war. War teaches Gem and Hank quickly that playing war in Gaithersburg is not like facing down the Rebs when you hear that rebel yell and bayonets charging down on you. War makes a man out of Gem and when the smoke finally clears, only he can find his "glory" in the drastically changed America.

In Braving the Fire by John B. Severance, did an adequate job of depicting a young man's journey to find manhood and define himself in the changing world around him, but the soul searching to find glory left me with an overly romanticized depiction of the Civil War. Making war simplistic shadows the pain and torment that it brings to the people and country and with Gems journey to find "glory", war is purely just romanticized to depict a harrowing journey for the young adult reader.