All the Broken Pieces - Softcover

Burg, Ann E.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0545080932 ISBN 13: 9780545080934

Publisher: Scholastic Paperbacks, 2012

Synopsis

An award-winning debut novel from a stellar new voice in middle grade fiction.

Matt Pin would like to forget: war torn Vietnam, bombs that fell like dead crows, and the terrible secret he left behind. But now that he is living with a caring adoptive family in the United States, he finds himself forced to confront his past. And that means choosing between silence and candor, blame and forgiveness, fear and freedom.

By turns harrowing, dreamlike, sad, and triumphant, this searing debut novel, written in lucid verse, reveals an unforgettable perspective on the lasting impact of war and the healing power of love.

About this title

About the Author

Ann Burg's debut novel, All the Broken Pieces(2009), was named a Jefferson Cup award winner and an IRA Notable Book for a Global Society, among its many honors. Her follow-up, Serafina's Promise (2013), was named an ALA Notable, Parents' Choice Gold Award Winner, and an NAACP Image Award finalist. Burg worked as an English teacher for 10 years before becoming a full-time writer. She lives in Rhinebeck, New York, with her family. You can visit her online at annburg.com.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Airlifted from Vietnam at the end of the war and adopted by a loving American family, Matt Pin, 12, is haunted by what he left behind, even as he bonds with his new little brother and becomes a star pitcher on the school baseball team. In rapid, simple free verse, the first-person narrative gradually reveals his secrets: his memories of mines, flames, screams, helicopters, bombs, and guns, as well as what the war did to his little brother (“He followed me / everywhere, / he follows me still”). But this stirring debut novel is about much more than therapy and survivor guilt. When his parents take Matt to a veterans’ meeting, he hears the soldiers’ stories of injury and rejection and begins to understand why the school bully calls him “frogface” (“My brother died / Because of you”). There is occasional contrivance as Matt eavesdrops on adults. But the haunting metaphors are never forced, and the intensity of the simple words, on the baseball field and in the war zone, will make readers want to rush to the end and then return to the beginning again to make connections between past and present, friends and enemies. Add this to the Booklist read-alike column “Children at War.” Grades 6-10. --Hazel Rochman

About this edition

• Publisher: Scholastic Paperbacks
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0545080932
• ISBN 13: 9780545080934
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 240