Customer Reviews

Where Have All the Flowers Gone?: the Diary of Molly MacKenzie Flaherty

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Molly Flaherty's life has totally changed now that her brother, Patrick, has gone to fight in the Vietnam War. She misses him him terribly-his jokes, his pranks, and just his presence. Patrick's leaving also forces Molly to think about the Vietnam War more. She wonders if it's right or wrong, and if the U.S. should be involved. And she wants to DO something about it, but how can she protest, knowing that Patrick is fighting? I enjoyed how this diary was a good balance of thoughts about the war and Molly and her family's everyday life. One thought that really came through was the paradoxical normalcy of Molly's life despite the feeling of "living on the edge" because of worry about Patrick. Finally, unexpectedly, Molly finds a way to be involved in the Vietnam War when she volunteer at a veteran's hospital. I loved how Molly seemed to really care about the soldiers there, and relate to them well. She felt their pain, and courageously kept volunteering, even if it reminded her of Patrick. Molly in her everyday life was also an interesting and inspiring character-down-to-earth, intelligent, and unafraid to stand up for her beliefs. Don't miss this solid addition to the "Dear America" series.

Fifteen-year old Molly Mackenzie Flaherty is lost in the 60's and the Vietnam War. In the book there are so many feelings around her. She faced with racial prejudice, women's discrimination, pro and anti-war feelings, and the absence of her father who's a firefighter. On top of all that she's just trying to figure out how to grow up. Molly is unsure about what to believe-is the war good, or bad? What I like about her, is she weighs everything carefully, examines it, thinks about it, and never just "goes with the flow."

Molly's a unique character. I had the feeling while I was reading the book that she was a real person, not just another Dear America heroine who did great things, but wasn't a real girl. She never saved someone's life, made it into the papers, or changed the course of a war, like some girls in the Dear America books. But you have a feeling that she did do something.

The main thing that is dominant in the book is her love and worry for her brother, Patrick, fighting over in Vietnam. She's not sure she agrees with the war, but she doesn't want to "betray" Patrick by wearing peace symbols, or being in protests with the "beautiful people", as the hippies called themselves.

You can tell towards the middle of the book that she becomes more confused. She faces the weary hatred in the VA hospital that she volunteers at, against her parent's wishes. The guys there remind her of her brother, and that's one of the reasons she does it. One of my favorite parts in the book is when a depressed attitude is going around in the VA hospital. "Okay, people," I said loudly. "New rules, starting now. I don't want to see any talking. I don't want to see any smiles. I don't want to see any fun. All I want to see is healing, got it? Lots and lots of healing." Molly ends up creating a whole new mood, she starts making pillow sheet footballs and throwing them around to the guys in the ward.

In the end when Patrick gets injured, Molly has to deal with all of those feelings, too. But she's just grateful that he's alive. You can tell that she's beginning to understand things a little. I was glad when she finally decides the boy she liked is a jerk. Molly knows she doesn't like the war, but still admires her brother and she never has racial prejudice.

It's a great book, and I definitely recommend it. It really helps with the feel of the turmoil in the 60's. Then why did I give it only four stars? Because I don't agree with some of Molly's religious or "Feminine Mystique" views. Other than that, I really enjoyed it, especially Molly's spunk and good humor.

This book is about a 15-year-old girl named Molly Mackenzie Flaherty. She is in the homefront turmoil of the [SE Asia] War. She talks about a lot of different things in this book, like the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr., volunteering at the local VA hospital, Boston Common, hippies, school, driving, her dad being a firefighter, football, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Milhous Nixon, religion, Jason, and, most important, her brother, Patrick Seamus, being in Khe Sanh, [SE Asia]. There is a companion journal, The Journal of Patrick Seamus Flaherty. Where Have All the Flowers Gone? is a good book. ...I would recommend this book to everyone. It is very, very good.

I touching and telling account of living in America during the Vietnam War. The author is a wonderful writer. I love her stories of the Vietnam era. Her chatacters dilemnas and attitudes ring completely true and honest. If you like this book you have to read the companion My Name is America: The Diary of Sean Patrick Flaherty -- which I loved even more then this one. Also, the author has some other Vietnam era books for teens that are out of print but worth looking for, including: The Road Home

and the Echo company series written under the name Zack Emerson.

"Where Have All the Flowers Gone?: The Diary of Molly MacKenzie Flaherty" is a great book, but knowing that it is the companion to "The Journal of Patrick Seamus Flaherty" also by White, just makes the story even more special. I think it's an interesting perspective: one of the books is from the soldiers point of view, while the other one is from the sister and family's point of view. White made Molly the every modern girl, and all female readers will be able to relate to her (I even saw a little of myself in Molly). I like how Ellen Emerson White made Molly the opposite of a hippy - very levelheaded and mature - during such a confusing time in history. The TV show name-dropping did get a little tiresome, and I wished the epilogue included what came of the wounded soldiers at the VA hospital, but the story is excellent. I recommend.

I love to read, but I am very picky. When I read books like this, I feel like it's going to be (a) too easy (b) too hard (c) too much action or (d) not enough feelings. Well, I needn't have had worried about this book!

The diary-writer's name is Molly Flaherty. She was 15 during the late 1960s. Her older brother, Patrick, had just volunteered to fight in the Vietnam war. Molly misses him a lot. And she just doesn't know what to think. Be a hippie and protest? But is that betraying Patrick? Her decision is to volunteer at a Vietnam Veteran Hospital. She is surprised to see that most of the veterans are not much older than Patrick. In this way, she draws out her fear of Patrick dying, as she misses him so much.
Great book.

15-year-old Boston native Mollie MacKenzie Flaherty is going through some tough times. The Vietnam War is raging overseas and not one day passes without Mollie thinking about her brother Patrick, who had voluteered to serve in the Marines. There is trouble at home too as the assasinations of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. rock the country. Through the four months chronicaling Mollie's life we meet a girl who is trying to keep herself busy and trying everything to help with the war. She finds a job at the VA hospital working to help injured soliders who had just come back from Vietnam. She finds sad but also inspiring stories there. However when the family is rocked with the news that Patrick was injured in the war everyone is nervous and waiting for news. Another pretty good Dear America book. It wasn't exactly the best, lacking something, I'm not sure what. Anyway I recommend everyone to read this book and its companion, the story of Patrick, "The Journal of Patrick Seamus Flaherty: U.S. Marine Corps"

Where Have All the Flowers Gone (Vietnam) / 0-439-14889-8

The Dear America series prides itself on providing windows into extraordinary historical periods in American history through the eyes of ordinary young men and women, for the entertainment and education of young adults and parents alike. "Where Have All the Flowers Gone" looks at the Vietnam war, through the eyes of Molly, a young woman who struggles with the ideological diatribe on either side of the issue and merely longs for her dear brother to come home again, safe and sound.

Handling this volatile and emotionally difficult time period with grace and even-handedness, the author carefully cultivates a curious spirit in fictional diarist Molly. Molly listens carefully to the dialogue on both sides of the issue, hears the "Red Menace" jingoism of her teachers and the tales of American atrocities from the 'hippies' downtown, and wonders what the truth is, under all the emotion and turmoil surrounding the war. She watches the war on television and fears for her brother as his letters to home mention his friends less and less frequently, and she knows that this is because his friends are, over time, dying one by one. In order to feel useful, Molly volunteers her time at a local hospital for wounded soldiers, and she tries her best to cheer the men - some younger than herself - who have lost their legs, their hands, or their eyes in this bloody war. Though she feels better helping the wounded, she fears daily that the injuries she tends may one day be inflicted on her dear older brother. And his heart-rending letters describing the terrible death of his friends around him break her heart. In the end, Molly decides that she does not have to agree with the war or the politicians to feel tremendous sympathy for her brother and the wounded she tends at the hospital.

Because this is a book for children, the worst of the American atrocities are not dealt with here. The massacre at My Lai is not mentioned, and I think it is in this book's detriment that very little time is spent on the experience of the Vietnamese population, rather than focusing exclusively on the experience of the American soldiers. However, though I felt that the book would have been even better with the inclusion of this perspective, I still felt that a very even-handed approach was adhered to in describing this difficult period of America history that is so often painted with such a broad brush, with no room for subtlety. When Molly concludes that the war is bad but that many of the veterans are good people caught in a bad situation, we can conclude that a reasonable conclusion has been reached.

As an aside, although not directly related to Vietnam, per se, I was extremely pleased with Molly's occasional notes of blossoming feminism through the novel, such as when Molly notes that one of her uncles recommended she abandon the idea of veterinary school and instead just work at a shelter or a pet store. She wryly notes that had her name been 'Mark' instead of 'Molly', the uncle would not have been so adamant that medical school was no place for her. For parents, there are several graphic letters describing the death of Patrick's fellow soldiers and Molly notes the painful wounds she sees in the veteran's hospital, all of which may be unsettling for very young children.

~ Ana Mardoll

Where Have All The Flowers Gone is another one of my random book choices. I give it 5 stars. It entrances your intellect with the terrible mind frame of America during the chaotic 1960s. A time when hippies or "beautiful people" demonstrated their anti-war feelings, rasicm was at a boiling point, violence was a daily routine, and the Vietnam War was at an all time high. Stuck in the middle of all the turmoil, Molly Flaherty must learn to deal with the fact that her brother, Patrick is a U.S. Marine, stationed in one of the most dangerous spots, that is attacked occasionally. She must come to terms with herself and mature in order to cope with and conquer over her worst fear-her brother being killed. I recommend it to all Dear America fans.

I liked the other Dear America book about Pearl Harbor better than this one,because I lived in Hawaii and I know more about the attack. The main ideas of this story are that Molly talks about the Vietnam War , her brother in the war , her family , and what is going on in America. "Where have all the Flowers Gone" tells about the war protests because many people did not believe in the war. Molly thinks that the War should stop . It is a journal of the times.