Customer Reviews

Two Girls of Gettysburg

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Fifteen-year-old Lizzie Allbauer lives in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania in 1861, shortly before the outbreak of the Civil War. When her sixteen-year-old cousin Rosanna McGreevey comes to visit from Virginia, Lizzie thinks the girls couldn't be more different. Lizzie is shy and doesn't feel she is pretty, while Rosanna is beautiful, outgoing, and flirtatious. However, the two girls develop a friendship. When war breaks out, Lizzie's father and brother enlist in the Union Army, and Rosanna returns to her home in Richmond, Virginia.

From that point on, their lives diverge sharply. Lizzie helps support the Union cause that her father and brother are fighting for, and helps run the family business while the men are at war. Meanwhile, Rosanna marries a handsome young Confederate soldier and follows him to war, nursing the wounded soldiers. Eventually the girls reunite and witness the Battle of Gettysburg.

Two Girls of Gettysburg is a wonderful historical novel that does a good job at showing both sides of the Civil War and how the conflict destroyed lives and tore families apart. The novel is told through the alternating voices of the two girls. Lizzie's chapters are told from a standard first-person point of view, while Rosanna's are told through diary entries, similar to a Dear America book. As a result Lizzie's story was more detailed and her character was a bit more developed than Rosanna`s as a result. I highly recommend this novel to teens with an interest in history, as well as older readers who still love young adult historical fiction.

Two Girls of Gettysburg was a farily well written book. I personally love civil war history and there are few books on the market about this impoant event directed for teens so you can imagine how overjoyed I was when I saw this book. The historical accuracy was excellent but the book did not really grip ahold of the reader and refuse to let it go till the last chapter. Since I am fascinated with that period in American history it was easy for me to read through but if someone was not so interested in the Civil War, they might enjoy it as much. I also thought the story seemed more centered on Lizzie instead of Rosanna. This may have been the purpose of the author but I would have liked it better if if was more equal. Rosanna's side of the story is told through diary entires while Lizzie's is through regular first person narration. Although I do like novels told through journal entries, it made Rosanna's story seem distant and not like you were in the middle of excitment like you were with Lizzie's side of the story.

Overall, I reccomend Two Girls of Gettysburg if you know at least some background on the Civil War.

I picked up this book because my 14 year old daughter and I are going to visit Gettysburg this summer, and I thought this book might provide some interesting background. I found the book very well-written and well-researched, and liked the way the author used the theme of cousins from North and South to highlight the way the war literally tore families apart. The characters grow and mature over the course of the novel, and Klein does not shy away from the human cost of the war. The reader also gets to see the battle of Gettysburg from the point of view of a civilian from the town, rather than a soldier. I thought this was a worthy addition to historical fiction about this endlessly fascinating period of our history. While the protagonists are both girls, there are plenty of male characters as well in addition to military details that might appeal to boy readers to.

As a student of the Civil War, and Gettysburg in particular, I highly recommend this book. It is geographically correct. and historically correct. Many books about the Gettysburg Battle are boring.........This General did this and that General did that. This book shows the real life experiences that the people in this little town had to endure. Many historians say the war was not about slavery, but it really was.

When Lizzie's cousin Rosanna moves to Gettysburg, they become the best of friends. While Lizzie is plain with no gorgeous looks to boast of, Rosanna is beautiful, with lovely brown hair and a pretty face; their personalities could not be more different. But this does not stop them. They are best friends for the world to see, a Northern girl with her Southern cousin as a best friend. But when circumstances cause Rosanna to return to the South - and there become a wife and nurse to those in need during the new war - the girls are torn apart by a world of differences, where love, death, and a war of morals and freedom will try to ruin their friendship forever.

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I'll start with the good things about the book.

I really love the two girls. I had my favorite (Rosanna) but I liked them both. They made for great protagonists and their friendship was sweet. The characters were all developed well and had his or her own part in the story that made them unique. Rosanna's relationship with her husband was so sweet and it was amazing to watch them grow as a couple, then as husband and wife.

My favorite character: John Wilcox, most definitely. Martin Weigel comes in second.

Favorite aspect: John and Rosanna's relationship, as mentioned before.

This book is also very, very historically correct. While most people believes the war was fought mainly for/against slavery, that is not the case, and Lisa Klein makes this very clear through the characters. One point she drives across is that the South had the right to secede and only wanted their own way of life that they thought was right and just.

However, there were a few things that bothered me, and more than I would have expected. The pace of the story, I felt, was choppy. One moment it was really fast paced, and the next it dropped almost to boring. And then fifty pages later it'd pick up again. I felt like Lizzie's part of the story didn't really pick up until a hundred or so pages before the end. Rosanna has a much more interesting life, and that makes Lizzie's life seem pretty slow. But while I was disappointed with the pace of this story, I don't want it to discourage readers from picking this book up, as there is no denying that it is a wonderful story and that Lisa Klein is skilled at her art.

For parents to watch out for: Rosanna and John get married, and it talks very inexplicitly about their love for each other. They kiss (as do Lizzie and her beau), and it implies maybe three times that Rosanna and John sleep together. However, they are married, and it is presented in a sweet, innocent way, with little or no description at all.

Summing it up with one word: I actually can't use just one word. I tried really really hard, but two words came to mind and they just won't do on their own. The words are realistic and tender. The tenderness in this story comes from the fact that it was so realistic; and the reality of this book has much to do with the tenderness in each other characters and even in the story itself. Those words go hand in hand while describing this book, and I hope everyone who reads it feels the same way.