Shooting the Moon by Frances O'Roark Dowell

From the Publisher

JAMIE THINKS HER FATHER CAN DO ANYTHING....

UNTIL THE ONE TIME HE CAN DO NOTHING.

When twelve-year-old Jamie Dexter's brother joins the Army and is sent toVietnam, Jamie is plum thrilled. She can't wait to get letters from thefront lines describing the excitement of real-life combat: the sound of helicopters, the smell of gunpowder, the exhilaration of being right in thethick of it. After all, they've both dreamed of following in the footstepsof their father, the Colonel.

But TJ's first letter isn't a letter at all. It's a roll of undevelopedfilm, the first of many. What Jamie sees when she develops TJ's photographsreveals a whole new side of the war. Slowly the shine begins to fade off ofArmy life - and the Colonel. How can someone she's worshipped her entirelife be just as helpless to save her brother as she is?

From the author of the Edgar Award-winning Dovey Coe comes a novel,both timely and timeless, about the sacrifices we make for what we believeand the people we love.

Publishers Weekly

Reflecting America's changing sentiments toward war, this coming-of-age novel set during the Vietnam era focuses on the internal conflicts of an Army "brat." At first, 12-year-old Jamie Dexter doesn't understand why her colonel father-a war hero who "runs the show" at a Texas Army base-disapproves of her brother's decision to enlist. But after her brother TJ leaves for Vietnam, Jamie begins to understand that there is more to fighting a war than glory and heroics. Rolls of film sent home by her brother depict gritty scenes, while the dangers become all the more real when Jamie learns that her card-playing buddy, a soldier stationed at her father's base, has lost a brother in Vietnam. Then TJ is reported missing in action. While segments of this story-particularly the climax-seem rushed, readers will get a clear sense of Jamie's growing understanding of her father's fears. Her work developing her brother's film, a skill she learns at the PX, serves as an effective metaphor for her developing awareness of violence and danger, but the symbolic significance of the moon, appearing in TJ's photographs, feels strained. Although the book lacks the fine-tuned characterizations of the author's Dovey Coe, it succeeds in credibly depicting a girl's loss of innocence. Ages 10-up. (Jan.)

KLIATT

Shooting the Moon has to do with photography, war, brothers and sisters. Jamie is the narrator, and she tells about her family and how they respond to her older brother T.J. enlisting in the Army to fight in the Vietnam War. Jamie is a 12-year-old who is smart but still has a childlike mind, believing exactly what she has been taught, not seeing nuance. By the end of the story, she is a different person. Her father is a colonel, who always has talked about the importance of the Army. So Jamie is astounded when he isn't enthusiastic about T.J., his son, signing up for war. When T.J. leaves and sends home rolls of film for Jamie to develop, Jamie slowly sees the war with new eyes, T.J.'s eyes. The darkroom sessions and her new friends--one a soldier whose brother was killed in the war; another a soldier who is suffering from PTS disease after his experiences in Vietnam--mature Jamie as the months go by. Dowell is an experienced storyteller and she balances the serious nature of Shooting the Moon with the normal foibles of a 12-year-old. Age Range: Ages 12 to 15. REVIEWER: Claire Rosser (Vol. 42, No. 1)

School Library Journal

Gr 5-8- "The Army way is the right way." So says Jamie Dexter's father, The Colonel, a die-hard officer who has raised Jamie and her older brother, TJ, to be proud believers in the U.S. military. Stationed at Fort Hood, TX, in the summer of 1969, Jamie's family is tested when TJ decides to forgo college and volunteers for the Medical Corps in Vietnam. The spirited 12-year-old wishes that she could go, and she shocked to discover that The Colonel disapproves. When TJ sends rolls of film home from the front, Jamie learns how to develop them. They are chock-full of pictures of his surroundings and his favorite subject, the moon, but over time she's less eager to develop the increasingly disturbing images. As Jamie learns about the war from soldiers at the fort's rec center and watches her father grow disenchanted with the Army, her firm worldview is shaken. The clear, well-paced first-person prose is perfectly matched to this novel's spare setting and restrained plot. Dowell captures Jamie's growing self-awareness and maturity with the slightly detached, wistful tone of a memoir related well after the fact, and the precise clarity of a developing photograph. This thoughtful and satisfying story is more a novel of family and growth than of war. Readers will find beauty in its resolution, and will leave this eloquent heroine reluctantly. This is Dowell's most cohesive and engaging novel yet.-Riva Pollard, American Indian Public Charter School, Oakland, CA

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