Deborah Zink (Children's Literature)
Coiled by time and the battle at Bull Run, these are separate monologues from folks whose lives were forever altered by the Civil War. Together the eight fictional accounts from Southerners and the eight from Northerners tell a whole story of pain, loyalty, and disillusionment. This unforgettable lesson encourages youngsters to approach a situation with the knowledge that there are more than two sides to each story; there are as many accounts as there are witnesses. This book will provide insight as well as fine material for student drama. 1994, HarperCollins, $14.00, $14.89 and $4.95. Ages 10 up.

Betsy Hearne (The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, March 1993 (Vol. 46, No. 7))
In a sequence of sixty one- to two-page narratives, fifteen fictional characters (and one real general) recount their experiences during the Civil War. A few encounter each other, most meet unawares or not at all, but they have in common a battle, Bull Run, that affects-and sometimes ends-their lives. The writing is clean and the idea clear, but too many tracks muddy the water. Some individuals appear three times, some six, but the broad interspersion makes the identity of each difficult to remember and the development of various scenarios hard to follow. The advantage of such a large cast is, of course, the broadly represented range of society, from a bewildered general to a photographer who gets involved in the fighting to a slave determined to follow her freedom where it leads her. Students who perform the work on stage or as readers' theater, which is suggested in an endnote, will have the advantage of visual portrayals to help sort things out, and any reader will find an absorbing amount of information personalized in these all too brief accounts. Ad--Additional book of acceptable quality for collections needing more material in the area. (c) Copyright 1993, The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. 1993, Geringer/HarperCollins, 104p, $13.89 and $14.00. Grades 5-7.