Bookverdict.com

Gr 7-Up The Vietnam War era comes under scrutiny in this novel. Ojala, CA, is the blue-collar town where Sonny spends his days as a garage mechanic and his nights cruising and racing his rebuilt Ford. Feeling the need to pay his family's debts and believing that his recently deceased father would have wanted him to do so, he brushes aside his 14-year-old sister's suggestion that he flee the draft, and he is shipped out to Vietnam. Meanwhile, Cory helps her mother try to keep the family restauran...Log In or Sign Up to Read More

The times, they were a-changin'; and Hobbs chronicles the pivotal years of the late sixties in a convincing, affecting novel. In 1967 fourteen-year-old Corin is a kid, cruising the sleepy streets of her California desert town with her beloved older brother, Sonny; by the time she turns fifteen, in 1968, she is grappling with the moral complexities of the Vietnam war and suffering her first hopeless crush. When Sonny is drafted and sent to Vietnam, Cory transfers her affections to her radical new history teacher, Lawrence. Lawrence's strong antiwar, nonviolent views and personal charisma galvanize Cory. She starts reading the newspaper and watching Walter Cronkite; soon she's joining the lunchtime protes...Log In or Sign Up to Read More