"Exploding artillery shells blossomed all around him......the rattle of machine gun fire sliced through the endless booming...the soldier crouched in the doorway." World War II in living color happened seventy five years ago but today Trevor is playing his own version of it through one of his favorite video games. The walls of his bedroom are covered with World War II posters and his favorite stories are the ones told by his great-grandfather, Jacob Firestone, who hit Omaha Beach on D-Day and fought to liberate the French. His GG is a hero.
So, when the French people of the town of Sainte-Régine invite Trevor's G.G. back to honor him, the last remaining soldier of the company that drove the Germans out, Trevor is excited to go along, with his Dad and his G.G. to trace the older man's journey into war.
From Fort Benning, Georgia the trio makes their way across the Atlantic onto a tour boat where the three get to experience together in person what it was like to be on a ship, waiting to hit the beach and face the enemy.
The story is told in two voices. it alternates between G.G. back in 1944, fighting and struggling and losing his friends and the journey of 2020 that retraces his steps.
But when they get to France odd things start to happen. There are hints that G.G. is not welcome here.
The difference between war in a video game and war in real life comes vividly clear in this page turner. A young boy who idolizes his great-grandfather and the great-grandfather who carries the burden of the fog of war deliver a measure of sadness and an awareness that war is complicated and human beings - any one of us- can make a mistake we will regret for decades.
As always, Gordon Korman tells a fast-paced story of adventure, of heart and of tough lessons we encounter as we are coming of age.
240 pages 978-1338290202 Ages 9-13
Keywords: World War II, video games, multigenerational, great grandfather, historical fiction, truth, heroes, battles, military, 9 year old, 10 year old, 11 year old, 12 year old
Recommended by: Barb Langridge, abookandahug.com
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From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Restart, a story of telling truth from lies -- and finding out what being a hero really means.
There are two things Trevor loves more than anything else: playing war-based video games and his great-grandfather Jacob, who is a true-blue, bona fide war hero. At the height of the war, Jacob helped liberate a small French village, and was given a hero's welcome upon his return to America.
Now it's decades later, and Jacob wants to retrace the steps he took during the war -- from training to invasion to the village he is said to have saved. Trevor thinks this is the coolest idea ever. But as they get to the village, Trevor discovers there's more to the story than what he's heard his whole life, causing him to wonder about his great-grandfather's heroism, the truth about the battle he fought, and importance of genuine valor.--from the publisher
