While He Was Away

April 15, 2012
When her boyfriend David leaves for a stint in Iraq, Penna is anxious and devastated, but eventually she finds ways to cope. At first, observing Penna change from a girl totally absorbed in her boy to one who has other concerns, friends and responsibilities is like watching paint dry. But the pace rapidly picks up as both David and Penna become more caught up in their immediate environments. Penna discovers information about a grandmother who has been missing in her life, gets pulled into waiting tables at her mother's restaurant and finds new friends with whom she can share her current life. In Iraq, David struggles with the mind-numbing work of patrols and the terror that interrupts it, and he focuses on an orphanage for Iraqi refugee children as a way to be useful. Strong characterization, the vivid setting of a small Oklahoma town and the clear depiction of present life, with Skype, e-mail and phones with their inadequate promise of instant communication, strengthen the narrative and ground it in the present. Paralleling Penna's story is her discovery of a grandmother who lost her first husband in World War II. The perils of war limn the memories of the women left behind and cast into relief both their devotion and their need to continue to live separate and independent lives. A strong entry in the growing genre of fiction about the Iraq war. (Fiction. 12 & up)

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June 1, 2012

Gr 9 Up-Penna is determined to be a positive "Army girlfriend" while her boyfriend, David, is stationed in Iraq. Faced with the prospect of a year without him, the 18-year-old is wrought with fear, worry, and loneliness. As relative newcomers to Killdeer, a small Oklahoma town, Penna and her mother have few ties to the community beyond the house and restaurant they inherited from her grandfather. Friendless and alone while her mother works long hours, Penna waits for phone calls from David and begins to uncover some family history in the attic. Her contact with him is infrequent, and instead of spending her time preparing her art portfolio for college, she lies in bed rereading his letters. In an attempt to pry Penna from her depression, her mother hires her as a server at the restaurant. Despite her lack of skills as a waitress, Penna begins to make new friends and a new purpose. As her maturity and self-awareness develop, she connects with her mother as well as her estranged grandmother. She also comes to terms with her separation from David. Teens will devour this title quickly despite some stilted dialogue and one-dimensional characters. The ending is realistic and void of any fairy-tale solutions that might diminish the harsh realities of what soldiers often face.-Lynn Rashid, Marriotts Ridge High School, Marriottsville, MD

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2012
Grades 9-12 With boyfriend David shipping off to Iraq, 18-year-old Penelope begins fighting her own battles: working for her restaurant-owning mother; struggling to uncover the truth of her grandmother's own lost wartime love; and dealing with the daily stresses of worrying about David. Enter David's old pal Ravi, whobelieve it or notmay be even hunkier than David. Though the prose can get a little heady ( I will snag a dark but spangled cloak of sky ), Schreck writes with a well-oiled facility, and her research into surviving military conflict on both sides of the world pays off. Best of all, the ending is nowhere as predictable as you would guess.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)