The Blue Star
Tony Earley
Little, Brown, Mar 2008, $23.99
ISBN 9780316199070

In 1941 in Aliceville, North Carolina seventeen year old high school senior Jim Glass loves fellow student Chrissie Steppe, but can do little about his attraction. Chrissie has a boyfriend, Jim?s buddy Arthur 'Bucky' Bucklaw who joined the navy; complicating matters for Jim is her family owes his family a lot of money. Still he vows to one day make Chrissie his girlfriend.

He turns to his paternal models for advice; his Uncles Coran and Zeno coach Jim on winning the heart of a girl. However, everything abruptly changes December 7, 1941 in which his quest seems childish when compared to Bucky being stationed on the USS California which was hit by the Japanese at Pearl Harbor. For that matter Jim, like many of his peers, wonders if staying in school to play baseball until he graduates is more important than fighting for his country immediately.

Seven years have passed since the adventures of JIM THE BOY (not read) as he has matured from a precocious ten yea old to a still growing up high school student in love when WWII intercedes. Patriotism becomes a key theme as an odd triangle forms. Readers will appreciate the true sacrifice (not the DC pandering) the military makes to serve. However, it is the impact on Jim and his high school peers who are of an age to join and feel the need to do so that makes the sequel a strong look at America going to war.

Harriet Klausner