LitPick Review
Brothers of War illustrates vividly the hardships of living in a Confederate prison camp during the American Civil War. Two brothers from a Union infantry in Kentucky are captured by the Rebels and fight for their survival while living in Andersonville Prison, one of the largest prison camps in the South. Simon, one of the brothers, realizes that an inmate of the camp has stolen his fife, his most prized possession, and Simon is more than determined to get it back. He hears his fife being played and notices that the man playing it is wearing a medallion that once belonged to Simon's father. Simon then believes that his father is within the walls of the camp. Will Simon get his fife back? Will Simon be reunited with his father?
Opinion:
I really enjoyed reading this book because of the fast moving plot. No one scene or scenario was belabored to the point of boredom. I also was interested that this book is part of the Boys Read series of books. Even though this book is very short, each of the 69 pages was packed with action. Both of these literary elements make the book even more appealing to boys who don't like to read. Brothers of War is historical fiction and in my opinion it is more fun reading a book when you know a story somewhat similar to this actually did occur during the Civil War. Some of the content may be hard to grasp if the reader is under the age of 12. This book was hard to put down especially because we are finishing up a Civil War unit in school. Some background of the Civil War is also needed to understand the prequel of the story. If there is ever a reprint of this book, enlarging the size of the font would serve a good purpose as the font was incredibly small.
