It is the spring of 1861, and the serenity of Smith County, Mississippi, has been shattered by Abraham Lincoln’s declaration of war on the South. Young and old are taking up arms and marching off to war. But not ten-year-old Frank Russell. Although he is eager to enlist in the Confederate army, he is not allowed. He is too young, too skinny, too weak. After all, he’s just “Shanks,” the baby of the Russell family. War has a way of taking things away from a person, mercilessly. And this war takes from Frank a mighty sum. It’s nabbed his Pa and older brother. It’s stolen his grandfather, his grandmother. It has robbed Frank of a simpler way of life, food, his boyhood. And gone are his idealistic dreams of heroic battles and hard-fought victories. Now all that replaces those images are questions: Will I ever see my father and brother again? Why are we fighting this war? Are we fighting for the wrong reasons? Will things ever be the same around here?
Margaret McMullan is the author of six award-winning novels including Sources of Light, In My Mother's House, Cashay, When I Crossed No-Bob, and How I Found the Strong. Margaret writes mostly fiction for both adults and young adults, and she is especially interested in how historical events affect ordinary people. Her essays and short stories have appeared in the Chicago Tribune, Southern Accents, TriQuarterly, Michigan Quarterly Review, The Greensboro Review, Mississippi Magazine, Other Voices, Boulevard, Ploughshares, and The Sun among others.
A recipient of a 2010 NEA Fellowship in literature and a 2010 Fulbright to teach at the University of Pécs in Pécs, Hungary, Margaret is currently a professor of English at the University of Evansville, in Evansville, Indiana. Visit her website at: www.margaretmcmullan.com
