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Summary
Summary
Twin brothers, nine-year-old sons of a plantation owner, share everything except their different beliefs about slavery. As the political tensions rise in the South and the twins grow up, they are caught between their passions for their causes and their love for one another. When the civil war begins, the twins both go to war to fight each other.
Mary Stolz deftly captures the spirit of the times in this emotionally charged story of two brothers growing irrevocably apart. This heart-breaking tale is prompted by a real ballad dating back to the civil war era, that the author learned as a child from her mother.
Author Notes
Mary Stolz was born on March 24, 1920 in Boston, Massachusetts. She studied at the Teachers College of Columbia University and the Katharine Gibbs School before going to work at Columbia as a secretary. She suffered from debilitating arthritis and wrote her first book during a long convalescence. To Tell Your Love was published in 1950.
She wrote more than 60 children and young adult books during her lifetime including Ready or Not, Some Merry-Go-Round Music, Leap Before You Look, The Leftover Elf, Emmett's Pig, A Dog on Barkham Street, Cider Days, Ivy Larkin, and The Edge of Next Year. In a Mirror won a Child Study Children's Book Award and The Bully of Barkham Street won a Boys' Club Junior Book Award. Belling the Tiger and The Noonday Friends were named Newbery Honor books. In 1982, she received a George G. Stone Recognition of Merit Award for her entire body of work. She also wrote one adult novel entitled Truth and Consequence. She died of natural causes on December 15, 2006 at the age of 86.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (5)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Elaborating on an old Union army song she heard as a child, Stolz (Go Fish) crafts a slender but emotionally charged story of twins who grow up to fight on opposite sides in the Civil War. Raised in Virginia, the boys follow identical paths until their ninth birthday, when the 14-year-old slave who has been their companion since birth is banished from the "Big House" to the slave quarters for being "uppity." Tom chafes at the injustice and learns to disapprove of a society in which people are bought and sold "like they were crockery"; Jack, on the other hand, unquestioningly accepts the traditional order of things. In four brief, moving chapters, Stolz sheds light on some of the factors that led to the Civil War, creating in Tom a personable spokesman for the Union cause. Her pellucid, descriptive prose delivers a bite-size piece of history that is well-suited as a jumping-off point for further discussion. Illustrated with black-and-white drawings. Ages 8-10. (Nov.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
This thin chapter book doesn't add much to the sentimental ballad, included in an afterword, that inspired it. Twin brothers Tom and Jack go from playing war on hobbyhorses as boys to fighting on opposite sides in the Civil War as men. Without a fully developed backdrop, the brothers are little more than cardboard cutouts--one sympathetic to the slaves, one not. From HORN BOOK 1997, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Booklist Review
Gr. 4^-6. Based on a Civil War ballad passed down through Stolz's family, this story begins with twins Tom and Jack Rigby on their ninth birthday in 1850. Tom is angry that his father has sent the twins' slave and boon companion, Aaron, away from the big house to live in the quarters for getting "uppity." As he grows up, Tom never forgets his relationship with Aaron or stops seeing slavery as unjust, though he keeps his opinions largely to himself. When the Civil War begins, the brothers enlist on opposite sides. Although the novel is too sketchy to make a satisfying book, the story nevertheless raises issues that could make for interesting class discussion during units on the Civil War. --Carolyn Phelan
School Library Journal Review
Gr 4-7From the poignant words of a Civil War ballad, Stolz has fashioned a short yet moving tale of twin boys who grow up on a Virginia plantation and, as young men, choose opposing sides in the war. On their ninth birthday, Tom decries the banishment of Aaron, a young slave who has been their constant companion, to the fields because the interracial friendship is deemed no longer appropriate. Jack, caught up in the day's festivities, quickly forgets the boy who once saved his life. He dreams of the day when he can ride into battle on a real horse, instead of on the hobbyhorses that the twins have received as birthday presents. When Jack's is broken, kindhearted Tom makes room on his saying, "He'll go just as well with two." Ten years later, Jack wears a Confederate uniform while Tom makes his solitary way to join the Union Army. On his 21st birthday and now a lieutenant, he spies a wounded Confederate soldier by the roadside. He hopes that it is Jack, but it is not. Nevertheless, he treats the man like a brother, hoisting him onto his own horse, repeating the childhood refrain, "He'll go just as well with two." Though the plot is simple and the characters are uncomplicated, both are realistic and poignantly drawn. Fine-quality, pen-and-ink artwork appears throughout. A good choice for introducing historical fiction.Peggy Morgan, The Library Network, Southgate, MI (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Stolz (Coco Grimes, 1994, etc.) fleshes out--barely--a sentimental Civil War ballad about brothers who share a hobby horse, and years later, another steed in the aftermath of battle. Tom Rigby's excitement as he awakens on his ninth birthday changes to outrage when he learns that the slave Aaron, a companion to him and his twin for most of their lives, has been summarily ""sent to the quarter"" by their father to be a field hand. Although he listens reluctantly to the warnings of the household slaves (who maintain that making a fuss will only endanger Aaron), Tom defiantly gives his birthday toys away to the slave children. He has an argument with twin Jack, who echoes their father's advocacy of slavery, although the riff isn't wide enough to prevent him from sharing his hobby horse when Jack's breaks. Twelve years later, Tom--a Union officer--recalls that time as he offers a ride to a wounded Confederate soldier who looks only too familiar. Stolz focuses more on her characters' emotional states than on plot or background detail, and readers who are less familiar with the era will wonder why Aaron was sent away, and why the slave children have to hide their new toys from the overseen Paul Fleischman's Bull Run or Gary Paulsen's Nightjohn (both, 1993) afford more insight into the realities of slavery and of what Stolz calls ""this brothers' war. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.