All the beloved and familiar elements of Richard Peck's writing are evident in his latest book, On the Wings of Heroes. Davy Bowman and his friend Scooter are active in "the war effort," collecting paper and scrap metal during World War II. Davy's dad is a WWI veteran, and Davy's older brother Bill has enlisted and is learning to fly B17s. As usual, Peck seamlessly combines serious and hilarious business. While Scooter's father is getting ready to leave for the War, Davy and Scooter run into Miss Eulalia Titus, who discourages their rooting around in her barn with a shotgun blast to the tin roof. Miss Eulalia's face is "like a walnut with a mustache," but she is quickly the best teacher they have ever had. Peck considers, with humor and pathos, all aspects of war: soldiers, former soldiers, parents who have lost children, the families left at home. He reiterates, as well, the profoundly important themes of his recent work--it is important to be responsible, honest, hardworking, educated, smart, and to learn from history all that history has to teach us. On the Wings of Heroes is a short book and a quick read, but Peck's brilliant structure (the kids meet all the old-timers as they are scavenging the town for usable stuff) and his economy of expression--not a syllable is wasted in this beautiful text--make it, to my mind, an instant classic.
Kareem Between By Shifa Saltagi Safadi New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2024. Fiction. 324 pages. Kareem loves football and as he gets ready to start seventh grade he dreams of someday becoming the first Syrian American NFL player. Seventh grade is not off to a great start for Kareem, after football tryouts don't go as he had planned, his best friend moves away, and his mom returns to Syria to help bring his sick grandfather to the US for treatment. So when Austin, the quarterback and coach's son, offers to talk to his dad and get Kareem on the football team in the spring, if he will cheat and do his homework for him, Kareem agrees. Kareem really wants to fit in at school and he is desperate to find a friend, but deep down he knows that doing Austin's homework isn't the right thing to do. And to make things harder, Kareem's mom asks him to be a friend to Fadi, a Syrian Christian refugee. He knows he should stand up for Fadi and help him adjust to the new school,...
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