Guts & Glory: The American Civil War

Gr 4–7—In this first of a series, history buff and reenactor Thompson displays a solid knowledge of the Civil War, hampered by an overreliance on "hip" prose. He ably covers major battles, campaigns, and figures in a roughly chronological order, mixing informational passages and fact boxes with colorful action sequences in each chapter in what could potentially have been a winning formula to grab and hold the attention of young readers. Unfortunately, Thompson's colorful prose often veers into the realm of the bizarre. The repeated use of the word dude may seem odd coming from an adult author, and readers are likely to miss many pop culture references, such as a mention of the 1990s film Anaconda or a "Mike Tyson haymaker sucker punch." The many run-on sentences will leave readers at a loss. One such sentence describing Lincoln's situation approaching the election of 1864 ends by saying that his popularity didn't "necessarily mean that everything was coming up unicorns, rainbows, and smiley-face sunshine happiness roses of joy." Thompson takes a linguistic swing for the fences and ends up spinning around and falling down at the plate. There are many other books on the Civil War for this age range that will hold a reader's attention without the bamboozling prose.—Eric Norton, McMillan Memorial Library, Wisconsin Rapids, WI