Horn Book (Thu Apr 01 00:00:00 CST 1993)

This innovative and creative novel consists of a series of brief vignettes, each of which focuses on the life and thoughts of a person who participated in some way in the Battle of Bull Run. Fleischman has created an impeccable piece of historical fiction that leaves the reader with a rich portrait of an important battle.

Starred Review ALA Booklist (Fri Jan 01 00:00:00 CST 1993)

Starred Review Reminiscent of the PBS series The Civil War, which featured voices reading from letters and diaries of the period, this unusual book spotlights a series of fictional characters, eight from the South and eight from the North, at the beginning of the conflict. The pieces, which appear as a series of single-page entries from 16 journals, stand alone as vivid monologues of well-realized characters. As time passes, the characters reveal more of themselves and their common tragedy, until their paths (or the paths of their loved ones) converge at Bull Run, where some die, others lose relatives, and many illusions of glory give way to images of death and devastation. While some of the characters are soldiers, others provide more oblique perspectives on the war: Toby Boyce, 11-year-old fife player from Georgia who is eager to see action at the front; young Minnesota farm girl Lily Malloy, whose beloved older brother runs away to join the Union army, never to return; Carlotta King, a slave accompanying her master to war, who flees north after the battle; Nathaniel Epp, an opportunistic photographer whose only loyalty is to his purse; and Edmund Upwing, a coachman hired to drive two congressmen and their wives on a picnic to watch the thrashing of the Rebs at Bull Run. Abandoning the conventions of narrative fiction, Fleischman tells a vivid, many-sided story in this original and moving book. An excellent choice for readers' theater in the classroom or on stage. (Reviewed Jan. 15, 1993)

School Library Journal

Gr 5 Up--Through the alternating viewpoints of 16 characters from various walks of life, readers gain insight into the first battle of the Civil War and into the nature of war in general. Poignant, dramatic cameos seamlessly woven together make for compelling historical fiction. (Mar. 1993)

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

In the words of PW's starred review, Newbery Medalist Fleischman's fictional treatment of this Civil War battle ``relies on individual voices to give a human face to history. The result is at once intimate and sweeping, a heartbreaking and remarkably vivid portrait.'' Ages 10-up. (May)

Kirkus Reviews

Using a montage of characters in the manner of Spoon River Anthology, a fine novelist and poet offers 60 vignettes from 16 contrasting individuals who describe experiences from Fort Sumter to Bull Run. Coming from both North and South in equal numbers, the narrators include a colonel and a general (the only historical figure here); a Mississippi slave who hopes the state of Virginia will offer a chance for her to escape her master and for a free black man who passes as white to join an Ohio regiment; a southern matriarch who prays for the survival of her daughters' husbands and a Minnesota Irish lass who, in the end, mourns the death of a brother who ran away to war to escape their abusive father; a fifer boy and a rough Arkansan who's in the cavalry because his passion is horses; a photojournalist; and an ironical coachman, who drives congressmen and their wives out from Washington to sip champagne and view the battle. Bringing a poet's skill to crafting a unique and believable voice for each, Fleischman selects telling incidents to reveal character and to evoke the early course of the war and its impact on ordinary people—some beginning with dreams of glory, all forced to endure the grim reality. He also suggests the possibility of staging the work or performing it as ``readers' theater''—a demanding endeavor that could be well worth the effort. An unusual, compelling look at the meaning of war, the Civil War in particular. Maps and illustrations not seen. (Fiction. 10+)"