Shelly's Book Blog

Elizabeth Bird, writing in School Library Journal, has predicted that Frances O'Roark Dowell's Shooting the Moon will be "the one to beat" this year for the Newbery Medal. After reading this, I decided to read the book, and I'm very glad I did. This is a beautiful story, told in in the simple yet oh-so-powerful language of twelve-year-old Jamie Dexter, whose father is a U.S. Army colonel and whose 17-year-old brother, TJ, enlists and is sent to Vietnam. TJ's correspondence with the family consists of short letters to his mother and father and many rolls of undeveloped film sent to Jamie. Jamie learns a great deal about the realities of war when she develops these pictures. Jamie is a very likable character -- so sure, at the beginning of the novel, that she knows good from bad, right from wrong.

The anti-war bias of this book is clear, but I feel that the author is not at all anti-military. The book jacket informs us that she grew up as a U.S. Army brat herself, and the story conveys a strong sense of the positive side of army life for Jamie and her family. ("hooah! combat ready, sir!"). I really loved this book!