Slap Your Sides

Rating:
Summary: What if they gave a war and nobody came?
Review: In light of the recent events and our reaction to the terror, this book asks essential questions that I'm not sure we gave ourselves time to ask. How often we tell our children/students, "Use your words," implying "not your fists" and yet after 9/11 did we follow our own advice? Read Slap Your Sides with your children. Talk about the issues of courage, pacifism and the options we have when our government acts in opposition to our conscience. Courage does not always mean going along with the crowd and patriotism comes in many forms and with many different visible outcomes. W.W.II was a good setting for this story and the Quaker beliefs an appropriate frame but these issues are vital today more than ever. I'm so glad I found this book and hope to share it with many others. Thank you ME Kerr!

Rating:
Summary: What if they gave a war and nobody came?
Review: In light of the recent events and our reaction to the terror, this book asks essential questions that I'm not sure we gave ourselves time to ask. How often we tell our children/students, "Use your words," implying "not your fists" and yet after 9/11 did we follow our own advice? Read Slap Your Sides with your children. Talk about the issues of courage, pacifism and the options we have when our government acts in opposition to our conscience. Courage does not always mean going along with the crowd and patriotism comes in many forms and with many different visible outcomes. W.W.II was a good setting for this story and the Quaker beliefs an appropriate frame but these issues are vital today more than ever. I'm so glad I found this book and hope to share it with many others. Thank you ME Kerr!

Rating:
Summary: A book about World War II in eastern United States.
Review: Kerr took an interesting approach to the war by looking at Quakers and those with religions that oppose war and fighting. This was a thought provoking novel, but Kerr tried too hard--she tackles too many issues at once, and the characters lose their believability. For example, Jubal, the main character, is too young for the draft, so he spends his time wrestling with remaining a pacifist or joining as a non-combatant when he's old enough. But Jubal's feelings are never apparent (you could chalk this up to he's confused himself, so the readers should be too), and he rarely lets the reader know his inner thoughts--he's too busy narrating. He also has a little fling with a girl in town that just fell short of reality. This novel could, however, be a springboard to studying other issues, such as Quakers and war or insane assylums during the 1940s. Overall it was a disappointment--Kerr should have expanded or shortened her story to keep her characters developed.

Rating:
Summary: I enjoyed SLAP YOUR SIDES.
Review: There have been many tributes to the veterans of World War II but, as with any story, there are other points of views waiting to told. Jubal Shoemaker is thirteen years old when his older brother Bud, a strict Quaker, is called to serve in the war. But Bud is a pacifist and does not feel he can join the service and remain true to his moral purpose in life.

Instead of joining up like so many others his age, Bud decides to become a conscientious objector and serve in the Civilian Public Service. This action puts him at odds with nearly all of his town. It even sets him against some members of his own family. "Conchies" (what conscientious objectors were called) are not respected during times of war and soon the Shoemaker's are subjected to harassment due to Bud's decision. Signs reading "Your son is a slacker" or "Your Boy's Yellow" appear wherever the Shoemakers go.

Jubal is a normal thirteen-year-old who just wants his peers at school and in his town to like and respect him --- especially Daria, a pretty girl with an older soldier boyfriend and brothers in the army. Daria cannot bring herself to understand Bud's stand, and despite her friendship with Jubal she strikes out against his brother. Yet, somehow the two manage to remain friends even as the town turns its back on the Shoemakers. The stress of standing firm with Bud takes its toll on the whole family, especially since a local radio host keeps the controversy pot simmering with his anti-Conchie broadcasts. It doesn't help that he's Daria's father.

SLAP YOUR SIDES is a very difficult book to read at times. Kerr does a superb job of recreating the atmosphere of the war years for the reader. This is in part due to our being used to thinking of that time as a clear cut era without the confusing shades of gray while Kerr points out that that kind of clarity never really existed. Kerr asks us to question which is the more moral standpoint and whether doing something wrong can ever be right. I enjoyed SLAP YOUR SIDES because the characters and their relationships with each other never fail to feel truthful. This is not a book to occupy a rainy afternoon, it's a book for life.

--- (...)

Rating:
Summary: A little Bit Dry
Review: This Book Has tried to much to teach you about Quakers in WWII. The Climax is very un-noticable, There is no even exiting incident until you are 1/4 of the way done with the book. After that incident the book quites down again and the biggest scene is almost skiped. You hear after everyone in the small town knows about it.
It does have some good scenes and i would recommend it to someone who is teaching about Quakers. This book is an okay read but more educational.