Price of Duty

May 1, 2018

Gr 8 Up-Returning to his hometown for convalescence before heading off to a military hospital for more therapy, Jake Liddell is welcomed as a hero. But he doesn't feel like one. Despite his missing fingers and several bullet and shrapnel wounds, his physical injuries are relatively minor compared to those of some buddies who are missing limbs or dead. A candidate for the Silver Star, Jake is praised wherever he goes. But the real damage he's endured can't be seen. Jake knows his sweetheart, Aurora, must realize he's "not the same person" due to post-traumatic stress disorder. Compounding matters, Jake has to navigate the tension between his widowed father, a military officer who has never seen combat, and his maternal grandfather, a retired Army general and decorated Vietnam War veteran. Should he continue to seek therapy and return to finish his deployment, or take a stand against deceptive recruiters and what he's come to see as an insane war, potentially bringing shame on his family? Strasser packs a lot of narrative into a short novel, but never wanders far from a tightly wound and compelling story. Much of the dialogue between soldiers in combat scenes is dense with military terminology, but the author fluidly defines acronyms and slang in context. While the reading level and dynamic plot are suited to reluctant readers, descriptions of extreme violence, drug use, suicide, some rough language, and a significant moral quandary makes the novel more appropriate for an older middle school and high school audience. VERDICT Highly recommended.-Bob Hassett, Luther Jackson Middle School, Falls Church, VA

Copyright 2018 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 30, 2018
Strasser (No Place) again tackles a difficult contemporary issue, focusing on Jake, a young, wounded war hero returning home from an unspecified war “over there” with heavily conflicted feelings. An idealistic high school student from a proud military family, Jake was swayed by a recruiter to enlist. After a year of combat, he is angry and disgusted by what he and his fellow soldiers have inflicted on others and by what they have endured or sacrificed. On the way to rehabilitation at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., Jake is celebrated in his hometown by his family, the media, and the general public, but he feels much ambivalence about finishing his deployment, and grows deeply uneasy about being honored. Strasser moves back and forth between Jake’s experiences on base and in battle (described in detail) and his challenges at home. Jake’s internal debate over whether enlisting is a choice or if wars are too often fought by the poor, minorities, and “guys like me who are seduced by the action ads and unethical recruiters,” is thought provoking. An epilogue presents a satisfying resolution to his struggle between feeling as if he’s letting his family down and being true to himself. Ages 12–up. Agent: Stephen Barbara, Inkwell Management.

May 1, 2018
Wounded in combat, Pfc. Jake Liddell returns home a hero; he has one week to decide what to do next.Jake's grandfather's a general and Vietnam War hero, his father a lieutenant colonel; Jake enlisted out of high school. After rehab, he's expected to return to war (set in an unnamed, generic Middle Eastern setting). Jake's family couldn't be prouder of him, but he's haunted by memories of taking lives and watching lives being taken by an enemy that includes malnourished children and the desperately poor, their country wasted by decades of war. An attractive female school newspaper reporter wants him to publicly decry how recruiters manipulate teens--especially minorities and the poor--into enlisting, portraying war as a glamorous video game, but he'd be invalidating his family and their choices. In terms of gender, the novel feels as if it's set during World War II: Thousands of American women serve overseas in combat and support roles, yet the novel's soldiers are exclusively male. Under fire, the soldiers wonder if their girls, safe back home and seemingly not pursuing careers or independent modern lives, are faithful to them. They regret killing armed children and civilians but never the need to wage this war at this time.Taut, compact, and suspenseful, the novel raises important questions about war but disappointingly punts on the bigger issues. (Fiction. 12-17)

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Starred review from April 1, 2018
Grades 7-10 *Starred Review* Wounded in action and a near shoo-in for a prestigious Silver Star, Jake comes home from combat a hero, though silently questioning the purpose and legitimacy of a senseless war that has horribly maimed one of his friends and killed others. But what else is he to do? He comes from a military family; his father is a lieutenant colonel, and his grandfather a retired major general. And once he has received physical therapy, he will be sent back to the combat zone to complete his tour of duty. To refuse the medal and further duty while making public his reservations would be ruinous, reflecting dishonor on his family and making himself a pariah. Will Jake have the courage to take a stand? What price is he willing to pay for honor? Though principally concerned with considerations of ethics and morality, Strasser doesn't stint on vivid and visceral action as he offers flashbacks of Jake's combat experience. The drama inherent in the young man's crisis of conscience and his agonizing thoughts over appearing in an anti-war video are immediate and engaging. Strasser turns in another smoothly written, powerful novel as he engages a topic that is especially timely as more than 240,000 American soldiers are currently involved in some 172 foreign countries. The discussion this thought-provoking book will surely engender is both welcome and imperative.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2018
Wounded in action, and in line for a prestigious Silver Star, Jake Liddell has been sent back home to recover before finishing his tour of duty. Jake comes from a long, proud tradition of military heroes on both sides of his family, but nothing--neither his family history nor his JROTC training--prepares him for the true horrors of war. Gradually revealed in flashback chapters titled Aljahim, an Arabic word for hell (and perhaps intended as a nod to the seemingly endless U.S. involvement in various Middle Eastern conflicts), these horrors have left Jake disillusioned about military life, especially now that an intrepid high school journalist wants his participation in a documentary critical of the armed forces' recruiting tactics. In his brief return home, Jake must navigate his conflicted feelings as he tries to please his formidable grandfather (a retired general), clarify his relationship with his girlfriend (who is waiting patiently for his physical and mental healing), and visit one former comrade (a triple amputee) and the widow of another (who happens to be an ex-girlfriend). What Strasser's provocative novel lacks in subtlety, it makes up for with a timely, relevant critique of the American war machine and its dependence on idealistic and vulnerable young people. jonathan hunt

(Copyright 2018 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

January 1, 2019
Wounded in action--and in line for a prestigious Silver Star--Jake Liddell is home recovering before finishing his tour. Gradually revealed in flashback chapters, the horrors of war have left Jake disillusioned about military life, especially now that an intrepid high-school journalist wants his participation in a critical documentary. A timely, relevant critique of the American war machine and its dependence on idealistic and vulnerable young people.

(Copyright 2019 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)