Available:*
Library | Call Number | Status |
|---|---|---|
Searching... Bayport Public Library | J FICTION KOR | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Hardwood Creek Library (Forest Lake) | J FICTION KOR | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Lake Elmo Library | J FICTION KOR | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Oakdale Library | J FICTION KOR | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... R.H. Stafford Library (Woodbury) | J FICTION KOR | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... R.H. Stafford Library (Woodbury) | J FICTION KOR | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Stillwater Public Library | J FICTION KOR | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Wildwood Library (Mahtomedi) | J FICTION KOR | Searching... Unknown |
Bound With These Titles
On Order
Summary
Summary
A story of telling truth from lies - and finding out what being a hero really means.
There are two things Trevor loves more than anything else: playing war-based video games and his great-grandfather Jacob, who is a true-blue, bona fide war hero. At the height of the war, Jacob helped liberate a small French village, and was given a hero's welcome upon his return to America.
Now it's decades later, and Jacob wants to retrace the steps he took during the war - from training to invasion to the village he is said to have saved. Trevor thinks this is the coolest idea ever. But as they get to the village, Trevor discovers there's more to the story than what he's heard his whole life, causing him to wonder about his great-grandfather's heroism, the truth about the battle he fought, and importance of genuine valor.
Author Notes
Gordon Korman was born in Montreal, Canada on October 23, 1963. When his 7th-grade English teacher told the class they could have 45 minutes a day for four months to work on a story of their choice, Korman began This Can't Be Happening at Macdonald Hall. He was also the class monitor for the Scholastic TAB Book Club, so he sent his novel to the address on the TAB flyer, and a few days after his 14th birthday, he had a book contract with Scholastic.
By the time he graduated from high school, he had published five other novels and several articles for Canadian newspapers. He received a BFA degree from New York University with a major in Dramatic Writing and a minor in Film and TV. He has written over 75 books for children and young adults including the Swindle series, The Juvie Three, and two books of poetry written by the fictional character Jeremy Bloom.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (2)
Kirkus Review
Two young people of different generations get profound lessons in the tragic, enduring legacy of war. Raised on the thrilling yarns of his great-grandpa Jacob and obsessed with both World War II and first-person--shooter video games, Trevor is eager to join the 93-year-old vet when he is invited to revisit the French town his unit had helped to liberate. In alternating chapters, the overseas trip retraces the parallel journeys of two young people--Trevor, 12, and Jacob, in 1944, just five years older--with similarly idealized visions of what war is like as they travel both then and now from Fort Benning to Omaha Beach and then through Normandy. Jacob's wartime experiences are an absorbing whirl of hard fighting, sudden death, and courageous acts spurred by necessity…but the modern trip turns suspenseful too, as mysterious stalkers leave unsettling tokens and a series of hostile online posts that hint that Jacob doesn't have just German blood on his hands. Korman acknowledges the widely held view of World War II as a just war but makes his own sympathies plain by repeatedly pointing to the unavoidable price of conflict: "Wars may have winning sides, but everybody loses." Readers anticipating a heavy-handed moral will appreciate that Trevor arrives at a refreshingly realistic appreciation of video games' pleasures and limitations. As his dad puts it: "War makes a better video game….But if you're looking for a way to live, I'll take peace every time." This weave of perceptive, well-told tales wears its agenda with unusual grace. (Fiction/historical fiction. 11-13) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
WWII is central to 12-year-old Trevor's life because his beloved great-grandfather, "G. G.," is a hero of the war, having earned a Bronze Star for his participation in the liberation of the French village of Sainte-Regine. Now GG has been invited to return to the village to be honored on the seventy-fifth anniversary of its liberation. Trevor is thrilled when G. G. invites him and his father to come along. Together they'll retrace G. G.'s steps from basic training at Fort Benning, Georgia, to the staging area in England to the D-Day beach at Normandy, and, finally, through France to Sainte-Regine itself. Unbeknownst to Trevor, G. G. has been receiving messages from a group calling itself La Vérité threatening him with violence if he comes to Sainte-Regine. But who could possibly want G. G. to stay away and why? Readers will find the answers as Korman's compelling story moves backward and forward in time, recreating the then 17-year-old G. G.'s experiences of the war, which Korman does a remarkably good job of dramatizing. Page-turning suspense builds as Trevor's trip approaches Sainte-Regine. The story is captivating and beautifully realized, as are Korman's characters. Importantly, the book offers an examination of the moral and ethical viability of war that is sure to invite welcome discussion.
