Dead in the Water

June 15, 2014
In this second volume of his series on World War II (The Right Fight, 2014), Lynch turns his raw-boned storytelling talents to the Pacific theater.On board the aircraft carrier Yorktown, Hank assists pilots flying their Dauntless, Devastator and Wildcat aircraft to get off the deck without taking an unwanted swim. There is a modicum of action (like getting hit by a torpedo), there are burials at sea, a smattering of place names that ought to fire some probing of atlases: the Coral Sea, the Marshall Islands. But Lynch has other fish to fry. One is the racism encountered by Hank's friend Bradford, both on the top deck of the carrier and when they have a shore leave. Hank is a bit of a naif, and it appalls him when Bradford is barred from the beach at Waikiki or when the officers order him off the flight deck. But both author and Bradford keep their cools, though the latter does speak his mind to a policeman on Waikiki: "I decided if any American ever wanted to put me off someplace where I have earned my place as much as any man alive, he was gonna have to work a lot harder to do it than last time."Satisfied readers will look forward to the next volume in this worthy, low-key but piquant series. (Historical fiction. 10-14)

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July 1, 2014

Gr 5-8-Hank McCallum is a Navy airedale, helping prepare planes for the fighter pilots serving on the USS Yorktown as they battle the Japanese during World War II. Hank is proud of his work and his skill as a baseball player, until he meets Bradford, a fellow crewmember who plays in the Negro Leagues. Bradford opens Hank's eyes, not only to ways to improve his game but also to the condition of the African American Navy men, who are forced to wear white gloves and serve food to the pilots aboard the ship. As the war progresses, the battles become increasingly dangerous. When the Yorktown, badly damaged by torpedoes, has to return to Hawaii for repairs, Hank witnesses first-hand how his friend Bradford is confronted by the Hawaiian police simply for visiting the beach. But both men face an even greater challenge as their barely-repaired ship is sent out to intercept the Japanese forces near Midway Island. In The Right Fight (Scholastic, 2014), Lynch portrayed the U.S. Army's battles against the Nazis in North Africa through the eyes of baseball player Roman Bucyk. In this sequel, Lynch follows one of Bucyk's baseball rivals, who appears briefly in the opening chapters of the first title. The characters and situations in this story are compelling, especially Hank's love for his brother, Theo, and his fierce 10-year-old sister, Susan. The questions and challenges raised by his friendship with Bradford convey the unfair treatment of African American servicemen. The battle scenes are gritty and gripping, building to a shockingly abrupt and inconclusive ending (readers can infer what happened from the title of the book as well as from the actual events on which the story was based). Hopefully Lynch will address some of the unanswered questions about these characters in a later volume. This book will easily appeal to middle grade fans of World War II fiction and would make a good choice for historical fiction assignments.-Ashley Larsen, Pacifica Libraries, CA

Copyright 2014 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2014
Grades 5-8 Author Lynch pulls no punches in the second installment of his WWII series. This time his attention focuses on the Pacific theater and the experiences of narrator Hank, a baseball obsessive from small-town Maine aboard the doomed aircraft carrier USS Yorktown. Unsophisticated and optimistic, Hank is proud of his work as an airedale on the flight deck, making sure that the pilots take off and land their planes without incident, and he uses baseball as a way to make friends among the crew, particularly Bradford, a former Negro League player. Lynch's storytelling is unflinching in its descriptions of the reality of the combat and the racism that permeates life onshore and off. Fast paced, with spare, riveting prose, this is brimming with moments that should inspire readers to further research events, like the vividly described Battle of Midway, as well as feel sympathy for Hank as he comes to understand the true horror of war.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)