The Perilous Road

Chris Brabson is full of hate. He hates the Yankee soldiers who are camping in his beloved Tennessee woods; he hates their snotty Northern ways and their belief that they know what's best for the South; he hates that they've taken all of his family's food to feed their own troops.

And he hates that his own brother has joined the Union side of the war when, to Chris, it is clear that the Confederacy is the side to fight for.

When his hatred proves more powerful than good sense, Chris spies for the Confederates, revealing that a Union wagon train is camped in a valley near his home - and his brother is probably in that train. Caught in the bitter battle at dawn, Chris discovers that in war, nothing is clear-cut - good and bad are equally show more laid to waste by the horrors of the battlefield. show less

Chris Brabson is full of hate. He hates the Yankee soldiers who are camping in his beloved Tennessee woods; he hates their snotty Northern ways and their belief that they know what's best for the South; he hates that they've taken all of his family's food to feed their own troops.

And he hates that his own brother has joined the Union side of the war when, to Chris, it is clear that the Confederacy is the side to fight for.

When his hatred proves more powerful than good sense, Chris spies for the Confederates, revealing that a Union wagon train is camped in a valley near his home - and his brother is probably in that train. Caught in the bitter battle at dawn, Chris discovers that in war, nothing is clear-cut - good and bad are equally show more laid to waste by the horrors of the battlefield. show less

Read for a Newbery discussion, not normally a book I'd read, but I felt guilted into picking it up because I'd skipped *Rifles for Watie.* It was quick and interesting. There was one scene of battle that was pretty darn graphic. Lots of well-researched history of how farmers worked, how farm-wives cooked, etc. Above the educational value and themes, it was also an exciting story, and even a bit humorous in points. I actually do recommend this to boys and girls of all ages.

Follows a young boy in Tennessee through 2-3 days during the Civil War, and during his own crisis of conviction. Nicely written; this one would be an excellent middle grade read under the 'conflicts are not all black-and-white' type umbrella.

Chris is a confederate through and through. He discovers that war is more than a battle of ideas when he reports a vanguard of Yankees moving through the woods near his Tennessee home and finds that his brother is part of the Yankee troop. In his attempt to warn his brother, Chris meets the dreaded Yankees soldiers and learns how much all men have in common. Published in 1958 a recommend JF classic.

Well-written kid war fiction, although the emphatic statement that war always makes every man do wrong is a stretch. Not as good as Rifles for Waitie or Across Five Aprils, though.

The Yankees have come to his part of Tennessee and Chris isn't happy about it. They take his family's only horse and all the food they worked so hard to store for winter. He wants revenge, and in trying to gain it, realizes that he may be endangering his own brother.