Following My Own Footsteps

July 29, 1996
As World War II rages in Europe, there are battles closer to home for sixth-grader Gordy, even after his physically and verbally abusive, alcoholic father is put behind bars. Gordy knows his family is a mess--as readers of Stepping on the Cracks will remember, his four younger siblings are like "puppies nobody'd bothered to train," one of his older brothers has deserted the Army, and his mother has become "dull and vacant." Still, the feisty protagonist is quick to defend them in front of his prim (and wealthy) grandmother when the family moves from Maryland into her house in North Carolina. Before long Gordy wonders if the new clothes and regular meals provided by his grandmother are enough to change his life--especially when his mother decides to give her husband a second chance. While some elements of the plot are predictable if not overdramatized, the complex characterizations, period setting and Gordy's brave attempts to break a cycle of violence will hold readers' interest. Ages 10-14.

November 1, 1996
Gr 4-6-Sixth-grader Gordy Smith flees College Park, MD, with his mother and younger siblings to escape an abusive, alcoholic father, seeking refuge with his affluent maternal grandmother in Grandville, NC. Always an outsider, the boy protects himself from rejection with a veneer of insolence and pugnacity, bragging about his brother Donny who is fighting the Nazis in Germany. He jeopardizes his only friendship when he tries a dangerous experiment to get the boy, a fatherless polio victim, to walk. Donny's return from the war brings further disillusionment when the young man shares his horrible experiences and falls short of Gordy's expectations of a conquering hero. When their father arrives to reclaim his family, Gordy refuses to fall back into the old pattern of violence, choosing instead the uncertain security of remaining with his grandmother. The story is absorbing and, for the most part, believable, and details of the period are accurate. But Gordy's first-person narrative renders characterization incomplete, and readers are left with some stereotypes, particularly of the boy's parents. The writing is uneven, and particularly jarring is the repetition of the phrase "the old man" (as Gordy calls his father) as often as seven times on one page. References to Gordy's brother Stu raise questions that are unresolved here. Readers of Hahn's Stepping on the Cracks (Clarion, 1991), a companion to this book, do know Stu's fate, however, and will be interested in Gordy's story despite its flaws.-Marie Orlando, Suffolk Cooperative Library System, Bellport, NY

Starred review from September 15, 1996
Gr. 5^-8. As she's done in previous books, Hahn displays her remarkable facility for adapting to the demands of different genres. Having previously tackled ghosts ("Time for Andrew"), vampires ("Look for Me by Moonlight"), and the Old West ("The Gentleman Outlaw and Me""Eli"), she turns here (as she did in "Stepping on the Cracks") to World War II, taking the voice of cynical sixth grader Gordy Smith. When his mother runs away with him and his siblings to escape her drunken, abusive husband, Gordy hopes for a trip west: "Instead, I was stuck here in Grandville, North Carolina, in a big old mansion with the coldest-hearted grandma who ever drew breath." He senses that his wealthy grandmother thinks of his family as "poor white trash," and he defiantly takes up being the sassy, quarrelsome bully he was at home. He embarks on his first true friendship when he gets to know William, the boy next door, who uses a wheelchair because of polio. When his insistence that William walk leads to disaster, his grandmother proves surprisingly understanding. Stories about winning over wounded children easily become trite and syrupy, but Hahn gets us inside her character so quickly and skillfully that she maintains our sympathy for William without ever resorting to the sentimental. Despite a few historical inaccuracies (a conversation about Roosevelt in his wheelchair, for instance), this is a terrific rendering of day-to-day life in the mid-1940s, with every detail integral to the story. Sometimes heartrending, sometimes funny, Gordy Smith will prove memorable to all who meet him. ((Reviewed Sept. 15, 1996))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1996, American Library Association.)