The Storm Before Atlanta [Hardcover]

Karen Schwabach (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 28, 2010 | Age Level: 8 and up | Grade Level: 3 and up

At a time when most people have grown weary of the war between the states, two young children are desperate to find their way to the battlefields. Jeremy DeGroot wants nothing more than to join a troop as a drummer boy. For Dulcie, a runaway slave, freedom means she must head directly toward the fighting in the hopes that she'll become "contraband," that is, property of the Union troops. Both Jeremy and Dulcie find a place with the 107th New York Volunteer Regiment and even start to forge a friendship. But all that is threatened when they keep crossing paths with the mysterious Charlie, a young Confederate soldier, who may look like the enemy but feels more like a friend.

Young readers who like their fiction filled with exciting historical details, rich characters, and action-packed adventures will be drawn to The Storm Before Atlanta.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Gr 5-8-Jeremy and Dulcie quickly learn the truths of Civil War battle. Although Jeremy, an indentured servant, is technically required to receive food, clothing, and an education in return for his work, he often finds himself hungry, barefoot, and out of school. Eager to join the war effort, he flees the misery of Old Silas's neglect, has a brief stint as a paper boy, and joins the Union Army as a drummer boy. Dulcie, a young slave in Georgia, escapes and nearly drowns, but is rescued by Jeremy and Charlie, a young Confederate soldier whom Jeremy has befriended (an author's note following the story explains that this was not unheard of at the time). The Peace Society, a clandestine organization of pro-Union Confederate soldiers, becomes a surprising and important force in the three characters' lives. This is a fair and informative look at the role of young people in the conflict. The depictions of medicine and nursing are grim and believable, and the cruel treatment of slaves is evident, although graphic descriptions are kept to a minimum.-Jennifer Schultz, Fauquier County Public Library, Warrenton, VA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

From Booklist

Itching to join the Union army as a drummer boy, Jeremy talks his way into a New York regiment, though he is much too young to enlist. As he and his messmates march through Tennessee and Georgia, he slowly gains their acceptance. Along the way, he also strikes up an uneasy acquaintance with a young Confederate soldier and befriends Dulcie, an 11-year-old escaped slave, whose story is sometimes told in parallel with Jeremy’s. Gradually, his dreams of glory fade as he finds that war is not what he expected and, often, people are not what they seem. With graphic scenes set on the battlefield and in the field hospital, the story is more realistic than most Civil War novels for young people. Despite deaths, amputations, and moral ambiguities, the writing does convey a sense of idealism and purpose or, perhaps, multiple purposes for the various well-drawn characters. Schwabach’s research is evident in details of the story as well as the appended historical notes and source bibliography. Grades 5-8. --Carolyn Phelan

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 8 and up
  
• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers (December 28, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375858660
• ISBN-13: 978-0375858666
• Product Dimensions: 5.9 x 1.1 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,411,319 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 thought provoking civil war novel for young people, January 14, 2011

By 

M. Tanenbaum (Claremont, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Storm Before Atlanta (Hardcover)

There's no shortage of historical fiction novels for children about the Civil War, but with the 150th anniversary of the outbreak of the conflict this year, this thought-provoking new novel by Karen Schwabach is a worthy addition to any school or public library's collection. The novel tells the story of ten year old Jeremy, who wants nothing more than to enlist in one of the New York regiments of the Union Army as a drummer boy and gloriously die for his country. Continually told he's too young to enlist, he goes off to find the war himself--to follow the army until they take him. Soon he joins up with the 107th New York Regiment from Elmira, takes his oath, and gets a uniform, a pair of shoes, the promise of $13 a month, and best of all, a glorious drum. Traveling to Georgia, Jeremy and the 107th become part of a new corp led by General Hooker, on the march. "They were not told where they were going or why. It wasn't a soldier's business to know that." But Jeremy can't wait to "see the elephant," as the soldiers called those who had seen action, but all they seem to do is march and wait.

We're also introduced to to two other key characters, whose lives will become intertwined with Jeremy's: Dulcie, a spunky and very bright slave girl who runs away from her cruel mistress to find the Union Army, and eventually becomes a medic for a Union field doctor, and a friendly young Confederate soldier, Charlie Jackson, just a bit older than Jeremy, who's looking to trade for coffee or anything else.

War isn't as black and white as Jeremy had imagined back home. Jeremy knows that Charlie shouldn't really be his friend, but he's hungry for company his own age. And Charlie, on the Confederate side, wonders why he's fighting a war started by a bunch of rich men who "Told us we had to stand by the South. Then they went home to their families, to watch their slaves makin' money for 'em." And both sides learn that war is more about rain and mud and staying alive than glory and being a hero.

Schwabach creates sympathetic characters in her three young protagonists, as well as a very convincing sense of place. The reader feels right there in the middle of the action, as 98,000 Union soldiers march into Georgia complete with hundreds of wagons, cattle to be butchered, ambulances, servants, contraband slaves, and even some dogs and a pet pig. We experience along with Jeremy and Dulcie the chaos, blood, and horrors of the battlefield and its aftermath. There's plenty of action, drama, and even a surprise ending (no spoilers here!) as Jeremy and his comrades in the First Division march closer to Atlanta.

The author includes a brief historical note with additional background information about the characters, many of whom were real people, and a bibliography of selected sources.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Searching for the elephant, January 3, 2011

By 

Astrom "astrom1" (Hammondsport, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Storm Before Atlanta (Hardcover)

Eleven-year-old Jeremy dreams of leaving Upstate New York to die nobly in battle like the famed Drummer Boy of Shiloh. He cannot remember his mother, and his father is currently a long-term guest of Auburn State Prison. He has run away from the man whose bond he was put into after his father's arrest, and ended up in Syracuse as a paper boy.

But every time he tries to join the army to be a drummer boy so that he can achieve his dream of heroic death, he is told eleven is too young. Finally, he decides to leave New York, head south and try again. This time, he succeeds in joining New York's 107th. When he finally achieves his dream, he learns that battle was not what he dreamed it to be.

He befriends a young runaway slave who has also joined New York's 107th as a medic. Dulcie's outlook on the war is very different from Jeremy's. Also eleven, she has "seen the elephant," a thing which Jeremy longs for. Highly intelligent, Dulcie understands the horrors of war, as well as the horrors of slavery, and longs to see the end of both.

Jeremy also makes friends with a young Confederate, Charlie. Charlie is two or three years older, but is always friendly to Jeremy. Jeremy learns a lot about slavery and the South from him, but Charlie as a larger secret...

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars War is hell, January 3, 2011

By 

scatter "prevalent" (gilbertsville, ny USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Storm Before Atlanta (Hardcover)

The Civil War as seen through the eyes of an 11 year-old drummer boy - he went in search of Glory, and learned to hope that he and his messmates would just survive somehow -
This is a fascinating book, providing meticulous details of the later Civil War as well as an eerie penetration into the mindset of the two opposing forces. One can't help but feel that some universal truths emerge about the means by which soldiers are recruited so that wars can be prosecuted. None of this is forced on the reader, though. What appears is just a good action story, some captivating anecdotes about small southern political groups fighting for peace and union (or re-union,) and a cast of characters - mostly children - whose involvement in the war is at once horrifying and inevitable.
All three of the children who are the principle characters in the book - Jeremy, the 11 year-old newsboy; Dulcie, the self-liberated former slave of roughly the same age; Charley, a few years older but decades wiser than the other two - have run away from terrible circumstances in search of a war that has been sold to them by an older generation.
A wonderful and thought-provoking book.