Peacekeepers

July 1, 2004
Gr 5-7-Thirteen-year-old Nell and her younger brother, Mikey, have been left with their uncle while their mother serves as a peacekeeper in Bosnia. Her fascinating e-mails tell about conditions there, including a school she and her fellow troops try to reclaim. Meanwhile, Nell is being tormented by Shane, an older boy, and his girlfriend, Bonnie. Nell misses her mother but is too angry about her absence to e-mail her, even when the bullying escalates from name calling to threats and nasty pranks. Mikey, however, reads all of his mother's correspondences and starts a book drive at his school in honor of a Bosnian boy named Edin. Later, Nell learns that Edin and his brother have been blown up by a mine. When Bonnie attacks and seriously injures her, she finally has her mother's and uncle's support to move to another school, but she's not sure she wants to leave a place where she's starting to adjust. While the shift of abuse from Shane to Bonnie is distracting, Nell's first-person narration does present the difficulties of having a parent in the service, and it presents no easy answers. A good choice for discussion.-Tina Zubak, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, PA

Copyright 2004 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.