Anthem by Deborah Wiles. Sixties Trilogy #3. 480 p. Scholastic Inc., October, 2019. 9780545106092. (Review of finished copy courtesy of publisher.)
Teen Tuesday features Anthem by Deborah Wiles. Anthem is book three of The Sixties Trilogy. It takes place in 1969, at the height of the Vietnam War. Fourteen-year-old Molly's beloved older brother ran away after an explosive fight with their father. Word is, he's in San Francisco; but he has not contacted anyone. Now, his draft notice has arrived and her mother and aunt have concocted a plan to send her and her seventeen-year-old cousin on a cross-country road trip to find him. Molly, who likes order in her life has already mapped out the route. Norman, who summer plans with his yet-to-be-formed band are derailed, has a few stops he wants to make along the way. And what a road trip they have! As with the previous titles in the trilogy, this novel is documentary style. Though the page count weighs in at over 450 pages, many of them are filled with well-captioned photos and newspaper headlines that give readers historical context. Chapters are song names, which include a discography for each, so queue up some of the titles on Spotify and take a groovy road trip!
The point of view shifts between Molly and Norman effectively. The people that they meet along the way are brimming with life as they serve to help Norman gain confidence and upend everything Molly believes in. There are moments of hilarity sprinkled liberally as the reader watches both cousins grow and become socially aware. I did love each book in this trilogy, but this might be my favorite.
Highly recommended!
Book Beginnings is hosted by Rose City Reader and Friday 56 is hosted by Freda's Voice.
Anthem by Deborah Wiles. Sixties Trilogy #3. 480 p. Scholastic Press/ Scholastic Inc., October, 2019. 9781338497458.
Publisher synopsis: It's 1969.
Molly is a girl who's not sure she can feel anything anymore, because life sometimes hurts way too much. Her brother Barry ran away after having a fight with their father over the war in Vietnam. Now Barry's been drafted into that war — and Molly's mother tells her she has to travel across the country in an old schoolbus to find Barry and bring him home.
Norman is Molly's slightly older cousin, who drives the old schoolbus. He's a drummer who wants to find his own music out in the world — because then he might not be the "normal Norman" that he fears he's become. He's not sure about this trip across the country . . . but his own mother makes it clear he doesn't have a choice.
Molly and Norman get on the bus — and end up seeing a lot more of America that they'd ever imagined. From protests and parades to roaring races and rock n' roll, the cousins make their way to Barry in San Francisco, not really knowing what they'll find when they get there.
As she did in her other epic novels Countdown and Revolution, two-time National Book Award finalist Deborah Wiles takes the pulse of an era . . . and finds the multitude of heartbeats that lie beneath it.
First Line: As she did in the first two books of these "documentary" novels, the first "line" is an image. Indeed, the first fifty-five pages are images that capture the essence of the sixties.
Page 56: The first line of the book actually appears on page 55:
It's been so long since I felt something.
I highly recommend this trilogy. I am halfway through this one and don't want it to end. Here's a link to my review of Countdown. I didn't get to write a review of Revolution.
