Horn Book

This World War II novel tells the parallel stories of two young soldiers fighting on opposite sides of the conflict--a paratrooper from Utah and a Hitler Youth who joins the German army. Spence and Dieter's paths cross briefly on a snow-covered Belgian hill in a scene both compassionate and tragic. Hughes tells their tales in assured prose that's harrowing without being exploitive.

School Library Journal

Gr 7-9-Parallel stories follow teenagers Spence Morgan, a farm boy from Utah, and Dieter Hedrick, a farm boy from Bavaria. Stirred by complex feelings of patriotism and adolescent insecurities, both young men find themselves fighting for their respective countries in World War II. The first part of the story follows Spence from his small-town life to the rigors of basic training as a paratrooper; Dieter has left his family in order to supervise other Hitler youth, digging trenches on the German border. Then suddenly, both teens are thrust into the chaos and carnage of the Battle of the Bulge. Dieter has his eyes opened somewhat by a disillusioned and embittered corporal in his unit. Spence learns of war's truths when his best friend dies. The novel comes alive in these final chapters, capturing the soldiers' struggles to stay warm and to overcome their fear, and the battle scenes place readers in the center of the action. Hughes doesn't flinch from describing the devastating effect of a bullet. Soldier Boys rises above the cliche's of standard World War II stories and serves as a reminder that wars are often fought by young people like those we see every day in our libraries.-Todd Morning, Schaumburg Township Public Library, IL Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

World War II has begun and, against his parents' wishes, Spencer Morgan enlists and finds himself at Fort Benning, Georgia, training to be a paratrooper. <p>World War II has begun and, against his parents' wishes, Spencer Morgan enlists and finds himself at Fort Benning, Georgia, training to be a paratrooper. Standing between him and the glory in battle he envisions are two big towers, 250 feet high, which "stood over the place like a couple of hangman's gallows." Spence will have to jump from one of the towers as his ticket out of training and into combat. In alternating scenes, Dieter Hedrick rises through the Hitler Youth, helps dig the anti-tank trenches of the Siegfried Line after D-Day, and with little training becomes a member of the Fifteenth Army. The stories converge at the Battle of the Bulge, and the two boys actually meet. In prose more akin to the grunts of the infantry than the flights of the Airborne, Hughes's story never quite gets off the ground. This may be too big of a story to keep short, and the author writes summarily rather than developing lively scenes with action and dialogue. When Hughes lets dialogue carry a scene or in the poignant letter the Morgans receive from Spence's sergeant, the story has some power, as does the satisfying conclusion. Readers will wish there were more here than isolated bits of good storytelling. Still, there is enough here to sustain the interest of young readers interested in WWII. <i>(Fiction. 10-14)</i></p>

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

The premise of Hughes's (<EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">Family Pose) novel, the disillusionment of two idealistic boys—one American, the other German—who idealistically insist on hurrying into battle during WWII, proves more compelling than the somewhat uneven plotting and character development. The author effectively portrays the motivations of Hitler Youth leader Dieter, from his nascent aspirations at 10 to the brainwashed zealotry in the name of Hitler that leads him to lobby to be sent into combat at the age of 15. However, the back story describing the motivation of 17-year-old Spence, a Utah Mormon who joins the Airborne paratroopers to prove his toughness to the folks back home (especially one disinterested girl), feels cursory. The pace of the narrative quickens as the boys each experience the gut-wrenching and haphazard realities of war that challenge their starry-eyed, patriotic notions. Though some readers will find a few passages overblown (e.g., "None of this seemed like the stuff Spence had seen in the movies") and Spence's religious epiphany—which leads to his rather convenient connection to Dieter—implausible, others will appreciate this realistically harrowing depiction of the pointlessness of war. Ages 10-14. <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">(Dec.)