Beyond Bullets

Gr 8 Up—Gerszak spent more than a year embedded with troops on the front lines in Afghanistan, learning about and experiencing firsthand the war on terrorism. After this powerful experience, he then lived among Afghan civilians in order to explore the war from their perspective, learning to love and appreciate both the culture and the country that has been ravaged by multiple conflicts and invasions. Beautiful, provocative photographs are combined with explanations and journal entries to provide a complete portrait of his time in Afghanistan. The book does not shy away from sharing the darker side of war, with photos of injured soldiers, dogfights, and suffering civilians all included, and through detailed descriptions these potentially difficult images are given context and meaning. Having visited hospitals, individual homes, refugee camps, and much more, Gerszak enables readers to see a side of the war that is rarely shared in the media, and, even less frequently, in a book directed at young adults. The photos tell a story all on their own, but the added narrative draws readers in and gives them a front-row seat. Share or display this title with a variety of nonfiction and fiction titles about other American wars, such as Walter Dean Myers's Fallen Angels (Scholastic, 1988) or Philip Caputo's 10,000 Days of Thunder (S & S, 2005) as a means of humanizing war.—Jody Kopple, Shady Hill School, Cambridge, MA