Jesse Bowman

July 1, 2008
Gr 4-6-Jesse, 16, admires the dress uniforms and the soldiers of the Chicago Zouaves and eagerly enlists, looking forward to excitement and adventure. He soon discovers that the issues behind the fighting are much more complex than he had understood; during his travels, he meets an abolitionist soldier, befriends the daughter of a slave owner, and watches his fellow soldiers pillage a Southern town. The battle scenes are gripping and filled with descriptions of the life of a soldier. The book concludes with an 11-page section, A "Real History Behind the Story," which includes information about the Zouaves and the war itself, as well as a map and reproductions. The attention to detail sometimes makes the prose clunky, but readers interested in the Civil War will enjoy the story."Kathleen Meulen, Blakely Elementary School, Bainbridge Island, WA"

Copyright 2008 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 15, 2008
Fifteen-year-old Jesse Bowman, bored at home, joins the Chicago Zouave regiment of the Union Army. Looking for adventure, he finds much more than he bargained for. Deprivation, injury, and death are as much a part of the Jesses experiences as the onslaught from Confederate troops. The new Historical Fiction Adventure series aims to mix accurate history with a strong story, and although the writing is sometimes workmanlike, readers will certainly get a sense of what war is like. McGowen covers some interesting aspects of the war that will be unfamiliar to most readersfor instance, after the townsfolk of Athens, Georgia, aid the rebel soldiers, the Union commander allows his troops to ransack the town. Jesse is horrified by what the soldiers do to noncombatants. The steady action on the page is in contrast to the books staid format, but the backmatter (The Real History behind the Story) has a few photos. A brief bibliography and some Web sites complete the package.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)