My Brother Sam is Dead

My Brother Sam is Dead offers a surprisingly unbiased look at the American Revolution. Some may hate this one for its brutal honesty regarding the Patriots, unvarnished by the usual idealistic gloss we get in school, but I think it's one of the best out there, especially for this age range, and will make sure my daughter reads it when she is old enough. Why not 5 stars? I would have liked to know Sam a little better, to have liked him and cared about him more.

First sentence: It was April, and outside in the dark the rain whipped against the windows of our tavern, making a sound like muffled drums.

Premise/plot: My Brother Sam is Dead is historical fiction for middle grade (and/or upper elementary grades). It is set during the American Revolution. The narrator, Timmy Meeker, spends the duration of the book confused by the complexities of war. He isn't really in favor or support of either side. He wants things to go back to normal. He hates that his brother Sam has been kicked out of the family for his "rebel" views and joining up with the Patriots. He knows his dad leans more towards being a Tory or Royalist. But also at the same time his dad has ALL THE OPINIONS that war is the worst thing on show more the planet.

My thoughts: This was my first time to read My Brother Sam is Dead. When I started it, I thought I would like it more than I did.

I picked up on the anti-war sentiment from the start. That didn't surprise me. I didn't expect war to be glamorized or idolized. I expected the view point to be war is UGLY, war is MESSY, war is TRAUMATIC, war is HORRIBLE. Many if not most books about war--any war--touch upon this ugliness, this trauma, this raw pain, this sorrow.

My Brother Sam Is Dead was written and published towards the end of the Vietnam War. Anti-war sentiment was high. America was also a few years away from celebrating the bicentennial. I don't know if either of these facts had any impact at all on the story these brothers were telling, were sharing. But it doesn't escape my attention that they might have wanted to remind readers that just because the war happened two hundred years ago, doesn't make it any less ugly, horrifying, terrifying, gross, disgusting, revolting, traumatizing. The "cause" they were fighting for did not negate the reality of war being what it fundamentally is.

I guess what surprised me, and probably shouldn't have, is the way Tim loses his father and his brother. Not the fact that both died--or either died. BUT the how. It isn't so much that Sam Meeker dies in the novel. It is the how and why. The father's death was sad and unnecessary, but it was the brother's death that turns the novel about.

I do think that adult readers may read the book differently perhaps. I'm not sure. I do know that this is a book that I never would have picked up as a kid or teen.

As an adult, I was seeing things not so much through Tim's eyes but through the eyes of his parents. show less

My Brother Sam is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier is the story of Tim Meeker, a 14-year-old boy living in the American colonies during the tumultuous time of the Revolutionary War. At first the war seems distant to Tim, just a topic of conversation in the tavern his family keeps. However, when his older brother Sam enlists in the Continental Army over the fierce objections of their Loyalist father, the war truly comes home for the Meeker family. Written by an acclaimed children’s author and his historian brother, the novel draws on historical facts to paint a picture of everyday life for a Colonial family swept up in the conflict and violence of the Revolution. My Brother Sam is Dead shows that, despite our show more national mythology surrounding the Revolution and the Founding Fathers, not all of the colonists were in favor of the rebellion, and many friends and families were bitterly divided over the subject. In the story, the soldiers Tim encounters do not always behave according to what we may assume; the British soldiers wistfully yearn for home, and the desperate Continental forces steal from the very colonists for whom’s freedom they are fighting. As Tim’s mother remarks, “War turns men into beasts” (140). The epilogue leads readers to consider if there may have been a path to American independence that did not require the loss of so many lives. The book is an unflinching portrayal of the horrors of war, and some readers may be turned off by its descriptions of violence. However, for most readers, I think this is an excellent, fast-moving story that forces us to reflect on our assumptions about American history and the true cost of war. show less

A terrible, brilliant historical novel about the reality of war on the homefront, how it disrupts and destroys families and how it forces young people to grow up quickly. Tim, the narrator, is 13, the son of a tavern owner in Connecticut, when the American Revolution begins.

"So there were a lot of changes in our lives, but the biggest was the one that was happening inside myself. Ever since I had got the wagon home by myself I hadn't felt like a boy anymore. You don't think that things really happen overnight, but this one did. Of course I was dead tired when I went to bed that night, and Mother let me sleep late in the morning. And when I woke up I was different. I noticed it first at breakfast. Usually I sat there over my porridge show more moaning to myself about the chores I had to do or having to go to school or something, and trying to think of some way to get out of whatever it was. Or when Mother turned her head I'd scoop up a fingerful of molasses from the jar and stir it into my milk. Or I'd eat breakfast slowly so I could stall off going to work.
"But that morning after the terrible trip home, right from the first moment we got finished saying grace, I began planning the things I had to do - which things had to be done first and what was the best way to get them done. It was funny: it didn't even cross my mind to stall or try to get out of the work. I didn't wait for Mother to tell me what to do: I brought the subject up myself. ....
"We discussed it all, and about half way through breakfast I began to realize that I had changed. I wasn't acting my usual self, I was acting more like a grownup. You couldn't say that I was really an adult, but I wasn't a child anymore, that was certain. I thought about showing off in front of [my older brother] Sam when he came home. I'd say things like, 'Well, Sam, we've decided not to put in oats this year, we're going to use the space for corn.' Or, 'We're not keeping the kitchen fire going all the time - I haven't got enough time for woodcutting as it is.' I would be the one who knew about things, not him." pp. 132-133 show less

I love historical fiction for its ability to teach history through an interesting story rather than a dry textbook. This book does a great job of depicting the rift that occurred in families as people chose sides in the American Revolution. You had the Loyalists who supported Great Britain and the Patriots who supported independence. The Meeker family is torn by this conflict. Young Tim's dad is a loyalist, but his big brother Sam supports independence from Great Britain. When Sam decides to go fight with the revolutionaries, his dad is crushed.

Unfortunately, as the story unfolds we begin to see a dark side of humanity that goes deeper than fighting a war for a cause. When Tim and his dad go on a long trip to sell their meat, they are show more attacked by cowboys disguised at Patriots trying to prevent food from getting to the British. In reality they are thieves using the war for their personal gain. Further darkness is depicted when Sam returns home for a visit only to find himself accused of stealing his own cattle when he chases down the real thieves. As the title foreshadows, he is executed not by the enemy, but the very side he is fighting for.

Many kids have written negative reviews about this book. In my opinion, they tend to focus on the wrong points to criticize. My recommendation to teachers who assign this book is to be sure to guide the discussion so kids can debate their interpretations. When that happens people tend to change their negative view. show less

Tim Meeker is just 12 years old in 1775 when his 16-year-old brother Sam leaves Yale to enter the Rebel army. When the war visits Tim’s quiet Tory town of Redding, Connecticut, it is changed forever, and yet Tim cannot decide which side is right: the Rebels, who are sometimes called Patriots, and who Sam is willing to die with, or the Tories, who believe the King is the lawful leader of the American colonies. As both the Patriots and the Tories take his loved ones and friends away from him, Tim mourns the pain that comes with growing up. In the end, Tim despises the horrors of war and hates that it leaves no person untouched.

My Brother Sam is Dead is written in captivating, easy-to-read modern English that drew me into the story and show more conversations. As each event unfolded, I felt I was a part of the action and I eagerly awaited the resolution. Though I’d read this as a child, I’d forgotten the heartbreaking details and mourned along with Tim as the horrors of war entered his idyllic village and broke his heart.

More thoughts on my blog show less

W...T...F? Gah. I hated the way this ended; it just felt so cheap. We obviously know (from the title) that Sam is going to die, but the way in which the authors chose to kill him just felt so ridiculously wrong (not wrong as in unconscionable, but wrong as in poorly thought-out). Yes, I am aware that people actually died in this way, but it wasn't a common way to die by any means. Yes, I'm aware the populace should be aware that things like that actually happen in war, but I feel like ancillary events should be told through ancillary characters (they should have had a lesser character die this way). It would have been far more appropriate to have him die for desertion, disease, or actual battle wounds. I dunno; the way it turned out, I show more feel as though it would have been no less a worse ending if they simply had him trip and break his neck on a march or something.

On a side note, the epilogue from "Timmy" contained one piece of interesting information I wish more adults and books would address with children; was the Revolutionary War necessary? The vast majority of people you meet never even consider it a possibility; it's just something that had to happen. After studying WWI though (and especially after reading Johnny Got His Gun), I've become thoroughly convinced that the Revolutionary War was unnecessary. Yes, the taxation was bad, but I feel remaining British subjects would have saved us many hardships down the line; no Civil War, slavery would have ended before it got to its worse, relations with Native Americans would have been slightly better, we would have entered WWI and WWII sooner (potentially ending them sooner), and, judging by other British colonies, we probably would have ended up independent anyway (and a bit more liberal than we are at the moment and possibly with universal healthcare!). show less