Scholastic Booktalk

AMELIA'S WAR
by Ann Rinaldi
Published by Scholastic Press, an imprint of Scholastic

In a war where neither side is right, not deciding which side to fight for is in itself a decision.

I'm Amelia, and for me the war started in August, 1861, when I saw Dewitt Rench shot in the back just because he was a Rebel. We lived in Maryland, and while we were Southerners, most of us weren't Rebels. We were for the Union.

On my way home after the shooting, I stopped to tell Mr. Dechart, the editor of the newspaper, what had happened. He not only wrote an editorial about it, he put it on the front page. A few days later, he was arrested and sent to prison for being a Southern sympathizer. He was back in six weeks, after he signed an oath of loyalty to the Union and agreed to soften his editorials, but things were never the same after that. Then about a year later, someone broke into his office and destroyed everything, including the printing press. Everyone in town was horrified. "This is America," Mama said. "You don't prevent a man from printing his beliefs, even if you don't agree with them!" And somehow, I felt like it was all my fault. If I hadn't told Mr. Dechart about the shooting, he wouldn't have published the editorial that got him sent to prison and his press wouldn't have been ruined, and he wouldn't have left town, leaving his son, my friend Josh, all alone.

That's when I decided to stop taking sides in this war. I decided to just wait it out. Choosing one side over another just makes for trouble.

But it seemed that no matter what I did, the war just seemed to get me involved. Finally, I realized I couldn't stay neutral, no matter how much I wanted to. It was my war too, now, and I'd have to fight it, along with everyone else. But at least I could decide how and when and why to fight it.

Booktalk by Joni R. Bodart

 

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ARTICLE	Celebrate Abraham Lincoln's Bicentennial (Born 1809) Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States, is best known for issuing the Emancipation Proclamation, which led to the abolition of slavery in the United States. Lincoln was President from 1861 until his death in 1865.