karastotle 's review for:

Across Five Aprils by Irene Hunt

3.0

---

I had a vague memory of liking this book when I had to read it in junior high. However, upon re-reading it as an adult, I was quite unimpressed. While there's nothing technically wrong with the prose, the rural Indiana dialect doesn't really contribute to reading comprehension. Character development is minimal throughout the book, which also lacks a specific plot or narrative driving force — that's fine for an adult novel, but doesn't really work for a children's book. The narrative is very "talky," basically the book equivalent of having a character in a movie report every single thing that's happening on the screen. Hunt makes the classic mistake of telling, not showing, and it really makes what plot there is drag on. She did make some gestures towards adding complex dilemmas into the plot

Spoiler

(such as the son who defects from his northern family to fight for the Confederacy, or another family member who experiences guilt over deserting the army)

but these were never fully explored. I really liked where she going at the very end, with her remarks about the North being almost as hesitant as the South to embrace African-Americans as full citizens and people. I think this book would have been a lot stronger if it has been set in the aftermath of the Civil War than during the war itself, but it's just my personal opinion. Even though this was a Newbery Honor book, I can't help but feel there are more compelling middle grade novels about the Civil War that you could recommend to young readers instead of this one.