All the Broken Pieces by Ann Burg
by Sam Arnold-Boyd on Jul.16, 2011, under Battle of the Books 2011-2012, Free Verse, Grief, Historical Fiction, Real life, Sam's Reviews, War
Who would like this book? Readers interested in the aftermath of the Vietnam War, first-person stories of the struggles of an immigrant, and/or stories written in free verse.
Why? Matt Pin has had more that his share of grief in his 12 years of living. It’s 1977, and he is adjusting to his new home with a loving American couple and a new little brother. Matt is haunted by the searing memories of his war-torn life in Vietnam. His Vietnamese mother, abandoned by his American soldier father, desperately worked for him to be airlifted out of Vietnam after the war in 1975. Feeling abandoned by his mother and plagued with guilt over abandoning her and his badly injured little brother, Matt cannot imagine that his new parents really love him. With their encouragement, he excels as the pitcher on his middle school baseball team but is faced with a bully who calls him “frogface” and accuses him with “My brother died / Because of you.” Matt’s struggles and the people and events that plague him and help him slowly unfold through his first-person narrative presented in spare, simple free verse. The different threads of his story come together in a powerful, understated climax that is moving, believable, and worthy of discussion. This book is an excellent way to learn about the human toll of war and specific aspects of the Vietnam War and its aftermath.
This book is a 2011-2012 Battle of the Books selection.
The details: 224 p. 2009 Review by Samrarian
