War Is...Soldiers, Survivors and Storytellers Talk About War

Aronson and Campbell have collected an outstanding array of essays, interviews, blog posts, articles, song lyrics, short stories, and letters from people directly involved in war. The book is broken into sections called "Deciding About War," "Experiencing War," and "The Aftermath of War." A former soldier writes an open letter to young enlistees, hoping they will scrutinize their reasons for joining up. The U.S. military recruitment contract is minutely examined by a high school social studies teacher. World War II reporter Ernie Pyle's articles on D-Day are reprinted. An essay about women soldiers who served in Iraq is excerpted from Helen Benedict's forthcoming book, The Lonely Soldier. And a memoir by poet Fumiko Miura, survivor of the atomic bomb at Nagasaki, is included. The volume closes with a short play and a short story about the aftereffects of war. The editors make it plain that they are antiwar, but they have made an effort to convey a variety of experiences. Overall, however, war is shown to be brutal, life-changing (not for the better), and ongoing. Aronson notes that humans have gone to war for all of recorded history and show no signs of stopping now. Many books about war for young people make it seem glamorous, exciting, and noble. This powerful collection shows its inglorious, perhaps more realistic side.— SLJ Reviews 2008 November

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