And One for All [Hardcover]

Theresa Nelson (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 9 and up

Geraldine's close relationship with her older brother Wing and his friend Sam changes when Wing joins the Marines and Sam leaves for Washington to join a peace march.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Set in three turbulent years of an extraordinary decade, the '60s, Nelson's new novel achieves its grace by portraying an impersonal, often abstract war in Vietnam as it affected American families in the most personal of ways. Geraldine, more than a little in love with her cousin Sam, and half-irritated, half-charmed by her older brother Wing, quietly observes the changes in her family, the shifts in viewpoints that send one boy off to war and the other off to peace marches in Washington. Larger issues are encompassed in telling details: Wing, the poor student, enlists in the Marines after miserably failing (so he thinks) a test he has worked hard to pass; Sam, Wing's tutor, whose own father died in a previous war, is headed for college and is therefore exempt from the draft. When Wing dies, it is Geraldine's own pilgrimage to Washington that heals the wounds that have begun to divide her family. Broader in scope than the author's Devil Storm or The 25? Miracle (but delivering little that is new to the rhetoric of war and peace), this novel saliently sets the habits and legends of a family against the crisis in a nation's conscience. A Richard Jackson Book. Ages 11-13.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Grade 6-10 Through the impressionable eyes of seventh-grader Geraldine Brennan, Nelson evokes the tension and divisiveness of the homefront during the Vietnam War. Geraldine watches her older brother, Wing, struggle with school problems. He celebrates his 18th birthday by dropping out of school and joining the Marines. His letters home from bootcamp and then Vietnam reflect optimism increasingly tinged with anxiety and doubts. Meanwhile, the peace activism of his best friend, Sam Daily, has ostracized him from the Brennan family. When Wing is killed in action, Geraldine blames Sam and hops a bus to Washington, D.C., where she confronts him among peace protestors at the foot of the Washington Monument. Finally, her grief and fury give way to understanding that Sam was always on Wing's side in trying to end the war. Like Nelson's other sensitively drawn young protagonists (Elvira in The 25? Miracle Bradbury, 1986, and Walter in Devil Storm Orchard, 1987), Geraldine challenges injustice in an adult world and makes an independent statement of her own. She persuades her parents that friendship supercedes politics, and grief over Wing's death is shared by all. Her coming of age between 1966 and 1968 parallels a nation coming to terms with the military demands and human sacrifice of the Vietnam War. Set in the wooded beauty of upstate New York, this novel is a well-crafted story of friendship and family relationships and an accurate emotional barometer of the times. Gerry Larson, Chewning Junior High School, Durham, N.C.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9 and up
  
• Hardcover: 182 pages
• Publisher: Orchard Books (NY); 1St Edition edition (April 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0531058042
• ISBN-13: 978-0531058046
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,422,840 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A very touching book, November 1, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: And One for All (Paperback)

This book, is one of the very few books that actually caused me to cry. The story is so moving, and Geraldine is a very convincing character. I rate this book really well. I read it years ago at my junior high library, and have been searching for it since. I reccomend this book to anyone.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars one of the best books about vietnam that i have read, March 30, 2000

By 

laurel - See all my reviews

This review is from: And One for All (Paperback)

this is one of the best books about the vietnam conflict that i have ever read! the characters are so beliveable that you could reach out and touch them... it is a book that i would recopmen to anyone, boys or girls.

5.0 out of 5 stars Why not us?, August 3, 2006

By 

J. Duoto "Why not us?" (Earth) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: And One for All (Paperback)

The best book I have read since "Daniel's Story". I am a Male teenager and even this brought tears to my eyes. I bottled it up of course. But a fantastic book, so real.