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Author: Carol Matas
Title: The War Within
Illustrator: None
Publisher: Aladdin
Year: 2002
Pages: 160
Type: Historical Fiction
Summary: This book is about a little girl name Hannah who is Jewish, her family loses everything, and isn't aloud to go home because its a Confederate state, also she has trouble cause her sister falls in love with enemy.

I liked this book, because it told you what happened to a family during the war. How they lost everything and how it affected a young girl. I think that this for older elementary kids though.

I was a little disappointed with this book. I guess I expected stronger characters from Carol Matas and didn't feel any particular connection to Hannah, resulting in a lack of emphathy of her journey toward understanding the civil war and the greater issues of slavery and human worth. As to be expected with a book by Carol Matas, the historical context was well researched and provided a strong overview of a little known part of history which was the expulsion of Jews from Union controlled states by General Grant's Order #11. Still, I am not sure how I would use this book in my classroom. Perhaps, as an optional reading selection in the personal and philosophical context it supports. Still, I just don't know if grade 8's would enjoy it. That said, what didn't work for me may be a fantastic read for another.

After General Grant issues an order expelling all Jews from the territory under his control, teenaged Hannah Green, a Southern belle in the making, begins to question many of the values she took for granted, including slavery. ( )