Summer's End (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Summer's End Karen Coats Couloumbis, Audrey Summer's End. Putnam, 2005184p ISBN 0-399-23555-8$16.99 R Gr. 7-10 Fourteen-year-old Grace is irritated when her brother, Collin, burns his draft card at an anti-Vietnam War sit-in the day before her birthday, because it makes Daddy cancel her party. Gradually, the seriousness of Collin's action begins to dawn on Grace, especially when Daddy, a Korean War veteran, puts all of Collin's belongings out on the porch and Mom and Daddy stop sleeping together. Unable to cope with the tension at home, Grace stows away in the back of Uncle Milford's pickup and heads to her grandmother's farm, where she'll be surrounded by her busy extended family. The war finds its way there as well, though, as her cousins Dolly and Theo are at odds with each other over their brothers: Dolly's brother is fighting in Vietnam, but Theo's brother has gone to Canada, and it looks as though Collin is right behind him. Tempers flare as each sibling struggles not only to understand but also to be proud of the stances their brothers have taken. Award-winning author Couloumbis (Say Yes, BCCB 7/02, Getting Near to Baby, BCCB 11/99) showcases her skills at tackling tough topics with understated tenderness as she deftly maneuvers plot details to draw readers into the complex moral dilemmas of those turbulent times; without taking sides, she shows how personal fears, ideological commitments, and irreconcilable conflicts combine to force people into unsatisfying compromises, and how personal safety is a compelling but ultimately too relative concept on which to hang important decisions. She is spot on with her characterizations of Grace, Dolly, and Theo as they negotiate between egocentric responses and more nuanced and mature ones. Richly generative in its depiction and complication of the concepts of family, death, war, and taking a stand, this text would pair beautifully with Walter Dean Myers' Fallen Angels (BCCB 4/88) for a well-rounded picture of the Vietnam experience from multiple perspectives. Copyright © 2005 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois