Starred Review The story begun in The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation; v. 1: The Pox Party (2006), a National Book Award winner and a Printz Honor Book, continues in this volume, which offers more awe-inspiring reinterpretations of America's birth. After escaping the members of an Enlightenment college, Octavian, a teenage black slave, flees with his sympathetic tutor to the imperiled city of Boston, where the pair pose as loyalists to the Crown. As the war escalates, Octavian joins a Loyalist navy regiment that promises freedom to African Americans and enters into battle against the Patriots. Aside from a few essential interjections from others, Octavian narrates in the same graphic, challenging language used in the previous book, which Anderson has described as a "unintelligible eighteenth-century Johnsonian Augustan prose." But readers need not grasp every reference in the rich, elegant tangle of dialects to appreciate this piercing exposé of our country's founding hypocrisies. Even more present in this volume are passionate questions, directly relevant to teens' lives, about basic human struggles for independence, identity, freedom, love, and the need to reconcile the past. Viewed through historical hindsight, Octavian's final, wounded optimism ("No other human generation hath done other than despoil, perhaps we shall be the first") will resonate strongly with contemporary teens.

With an eye trained to the hypocrisies and conflicted loyalties of the American Revolution, Anderson resoundingly concludes the finely nuanced bildungsroman begun in his National Book Award–winning novel. Again comprised of Octavian’s journals and a scattering of other documents, the book finds Octavian heading to Virginia in response to a proclamation made by Lord Dunmore, the colony’s governor, who emancipates slaves in exchange for military service. Octavian’s initial pride is short-lived, as he realizes that their liberation owes less to moral conviction than to political expediency. Disillusioned, facing other crises of conscience, Octavian’s growth is apparent, if not always to himself: when he expresses doubt about having become any more a man, his mentor, Dr. Trefusis, assures him, “That is the great secret of men. We aim for manhood always and always fall short. But my boy, I have seen you at least reach half way.” Made aware of freedom-fighters on both sides of the conflict (as well as heart-stopping acts of atrocity), readers who work through and embrace Anderson’s use of historical parlance will be rewarded with a challenging perspective onAmerican history. Ages 14–up. <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">(Oct.)

Gr 9 Up-Octavian, the 16-year-old slave whose story began in The Pox Party (Candlewick, 2006), continues his search for identity in this brilliant, affecting, and philosophical sequel. Octavian and his tutor escape from Octavian's master to relative safety in Boston where Octavian finds work as a violinist in a military band. After hearing of Lord Dunmore's promise of freedom for slaves, he enlists in the Royal Ethiopian Regiment. Following a loss at Norfolk, they then take up quarters aboard British ships, barely fending off starvation and smallpox. Octavian's uncertainty and doubt are tangible throughout. His detailed first-person narration is written in the richly expansive 18th-century prose introduced in volume one. He records the story while reviewing (and revealing to readers) his diary entries from the past year, so that "none of this shall pass from remembrance." He endures abuse, shame, grief, and humiliation, and comes close to despair; however, he is ultimately hopeful that humanity can aspire to more than warring and despoiling. Teens will identify with Octavian's internal tumult, how he experiences events as being acted upon him, and his transition from observer to participant, from boy to man. More than fascinating historical fiction, this is also a thoughtful and timeless examination of the nature of humanity and a critique of how society addresses (or ignores) identity, freedom, and oppression. Anderson's masterful pacing, surprising use of imagery and symbolism, and adeptness at crafting structure make this a powerful reimagining of slavery and the American Revolution dazzle. Amy J. Chow, The Brearley School, New York City

Octavian and Dr. Trefusis escape the College of Lucidity. Their flight takes them to Boston then Virginia, where Octavian enlists in Lord Dunmore's Ethiopian Regiment in exchange for promised freedom. As themes of servitude and liberty volley around Octavian's journals like cannon fire, readers are kept off-balance while grappling with complex vocabulary and sentence structure. An author's note fills in historical background.

In the sequel to The Pox Party (2006), Octavian Nothing escapes the College of Lucidity and flees to British-controlled Boston, where he will swear fealty "to whoever offers emancipation with the greatest celerity." When Lord Dunmore offers manumission to slaves joining the British counterrevolutionary forces, Octavian joins the Royal Ethiopian Regiment off the coast of Virginia. He not only fights the rebels but records the stories of his fellow Africans and escaped slaves so their names and stories will not be lost. In so doing, Octavian receives a first-hand education quite different from his classical training and offers readers an African-American perspective neglected in most sources on the period. Elegantly crafted writing in an 18th-century voice, sensitive portrayals of primary and secondary characters and a fascinating author's note make this one of the few volumes to fully comprehend the paradoxes of the struggle for liberty in America. Prefaced by an outline of volume one, this can stand alone, but readers who finish both will feel that they have been part of a grand and special adventure. (Historical fiction. 14 & up)

The second Octavian Nothing novel jumps in where the last left off, with Octavian and his tutor, Dr. Trefusis, escaping his former masters and fleeing back to Boston. They fend off starvation during the Revolutionary Army's siege of Boston and then escape to the fleet of Lord Dunmore, who has promised freedom to any slave who joins his Loyalist army. There Octavian re-encounters former fellow slave, Pro Bono, who had been given away as a gift during the first book. He meets many former slaves who have fled to join this regiment in the hope of securing freedom. Octavian spends his time among harrowing battles, foraging expeditions, and many narrow escapes, collecting the often-horrifying stories of these slaves, events primarily presented as Octavian's diaries. He realizes just how well treated he was, despite being an experiment. He also learns from Pro Bono more about his mother and who she actually was. Nothing goes well for Lord Dunmore or his army, but in the midst of all the death, loss, and misery, Octavian realizes he is no longer without an identity. He has found his own. Anderson includes an afterward about the historical circumstances that inspired the novel and explains his choice of endings. More cohesive than the first book, it is a wonderfully written story with immersive descriptions of life during the Revolution, but it is still a challenging read that touches on some truly difficult topics.-Teresa Copeland.