Review: The Last April by Belinda Kroll
Split-second decisions have life-changing consequences in The Last April, a gripping and thought-provoking work of YA historical fiction by Belinda Kroll.
It’s April, 1865 and in the immediate aftermath of the Civil War, fifteen-year-old Gretchen Miller is in the garden of her family farm in rural Ohio when she’s startled by a Confederate soldier who falls in a dead faint literally steps from her feet. As Gretchen reaches his side, the feverish soldier mutters about his escape from Camp Chase, a training barrack/Confederate prison outside of Columbus. Realizing that the young soldier will die without her help, Gretchen reluctantly […]
Over the Mountain is an engrossing work of YA historical fiction by Katherine P. Stillerman, set in the volatile early sixties.
In Scipio Rising, the first book in the Scipio Africanus Saga, Martin Tessmer has done an expert job of weaving historical fact and narrative into a well-structured plot. The mirroring of Hannibal with Scipio works to weigh them both as military geniuses, bringing the forgotten Scipio to the historical stage that Hannibal has dominated for so long.