Sid Hite

After telling a lie that grew in significance, 15-year-old Paul is sent to spend the summer with some distant relatives working on a farm - not the way the Richmond, Va., boy had planned his summer. Though irate about it, Paul is polite to everyone on the farm and does his best, quickly growing to actually enjoy the work and the people - especially Rebecca, the teen daughter of one of the other farm hands. The farm seems is haunted (figuratively or literally?) by an employee who had made a show more great impression on everyone there, but then took his own life a year before. Everyone on the farm is having difficulty moving past Hennley's death, and the man's dog, Einstein, is a constant reminder to them of the friend they lost.
I never grew particularly attached to any of the characters in this book. They were all appealing enough, but I just didn't care deeply what happened to any of them. I never quite accepted Paul's growing obsession with Hennley. That was not convincing. A good book, but not a great one. show less

Another solid edition to this series and the last one I needed to read! It was one of my favorites, but I love Civil War history, so I'm a bit biased. A wonderful story for the young child in your life interested in history. Just to beware of the content since it is about a battle, though there weren't a lot of gruesomeness, there was a bit. Just something to be aware of. 5 out of 5 stars.

This entire series is a wonderful way to learn history or teach it to adolescents. I find today's generations seem to recall more when they learn through other people (pop songs, celebrity gossip, etc.), so what better way to teach history than through someone else's perspective? Yes, "authentic" diaries would be "better", but would the language really hold the modern student's attention? Did the diary writer know what WOULD be important in the context of history? Probably not.

Although this sounded like an ordinary teenager’s diary, and I can see all the events happening to somebody in real life, this book was a disappointment. It was not nearly as funny as the dust jacket blurb suggested it would be. In fact, it was kind of boring. I spent the whole book wondering whether anything was actually going to happen.