Horn Book (Sat Apr 01 00:00:00 CST 2006)

Following his father's death at Pearl Harbor, seventeen-year-old Adam Pelko enlists in the marines to serve on the Pacific front of WWII. Harsh training leads to brutal fighting and loss, sparingly depicted within a well-maintained period setting. This final volume of a trilogy complements its predecessors but stands alone as it chronicles Adam's growing understanding of what war really means.

Kirkus Reviews

<p>The battle for Okinawa, in 1945, was the last major battle of WWII, and Adam Pelko enlisted just in time to be there. His father had died at Pearl Harbor and Adam hopes to honor him by fighting admirably. But the war is horrible, and Adam comes to know war, death and injury for the first time, returning home a changed man. It's a familiar story, told here in telegraphic, first-person prose, strong on plot but short on character development, perfect for the reluctant or inexperienced reader. The historical note is the best part of this volume, full of interesting details about the battle and the end of the war. Timed to coincide with the anniversaries of V-J Day and the end of WWII, this conclusion to the trilogy begun with A Boy at War: A Novel of Pearl Harbor (2001) and A Boy No More (2004) will attract young history enthusiasts and be valuable in school units on the war. (Fiction. 9-14)</p>

ALA Booklist

In the final part of Adam Pelko's story, which began with A Boy at War (2001) and continued in A Boy No More (2004), Adam, now 17, lies about his age so that he can join the marines in 1944. Mazer did the same thing (though he served in Europe), and much of the power of this novel lies in the factual details, first of rough boot-camp training and then of battle. This novel stands alone, but readers familiar with the previous books can't help but recognize Adam's haunting sorrow about his dad, killed at Pearl Harbor, and his longing for his distant Japanese American friend. The climax is the brutal battle with the Japanese on Okinawa (We had to kill every one of them), where Adam is wounded and sees comrades killed. A note fills in some background history. The clear first-person narrative is terse and gripping, graphic about the slaughter and heartfelt about the loss. Readers older than the target audience may also want to read this hard-hitting, heroic story.