Myers, Walter Dean. Invasion.

Myers, Walter Dean.  Invasion.  Scholastic Press      2013  205p  $17.99  ISBN 978-0-545-38428-5  ms/hs  Realistic fiction      E-BN

In the prequel to Fallen Angels and Sunrise Over Fallujah, Myers returns to World War II to introduce Marcus Perry, uncle and father to characters in his subsequent books, and to tell the story of Josiah Wedgewood, a young soldier who learns the horrifying nature of war first-hand.  What is most interesting about this book is the evolution of a man from innocent farm boy in Virginia to killer in Normandy.  Myers captures the feelings, friendships and suffering of war from Josiah’s viewpoint and places them in words for teen readers to comprehend.  In Josiah’s letters to his mother and Vernelle, his “wannabe” girl back home, we learn of a soldier’s need for emotional support.  In his budding friendship with Mink, Josiah shares his need for human connection, for someone to break the tension of the moment with a quote or an anecdotal story drawn from past life.  Myers’s research on actual participants in the Normandy invasion authenticates his writing.  Fans know about the battles, but with Invasion, Myers recognizes that they need more than that, and he pushes them into the minds of his soldiers.  He takes his time developing Josiah’s feelings as he experiences the changes of spirit that are a real part of warfare.  Readers will want to find out whether Josiah survives: that is what happens when an author writes masterfully. 

Summary: Country boy Josiah Wedgewood tells the story of the battle at Normandy’s beaches in 1944.  This prequel to Fallen Angels and Sunrise Over Fallujah introduces Marcus Perry, whose offspring provide the protagonists for books on the Vietnam war and the Iraqi war.       

World War Two-Fiction                                       --Martha Squaresky