"All the Broken Pieces" by Ann E. Burg

I chose to review this book because it is included on the 6th-8th grade list for the 2011-12 Oregon Battle of the Books.

All The Broken Pieces
Author: Ann E. Burg
Genre: Historical Fiction (written in verse)
Age Level: 12-16 years

SUMMARY
It has been two years since 12-year-old Matt Pin was airlifted out of war-torn Vietnam to be adopted by a loving American family. Matt is haunted by his memories of a father who abandoned him, a brother maimed by a mine, and a mother who gave him away. Even as he seeks comfort in his music, he encounters hostility from his teammates on the baseball field. It is not until he learns to forgive others and accept forgiveness in return that the healing process can truly begin.

CRITIQUE

All the Broken Pieces is a haunting tale written in spare verse. It is a story of forgiveness and redemption. I appreciated that there were many positive adult role models who were present to help Matt as he grappled with difficult emotions from both the past and present. This novel touches on various aspects of the Vietnam war and its aftermath, without being too graphic. As such, I believe it would be an appropriate book to use to introduce youth to the various consequences of war. However, I suspect that this book will be more fully appreciated by adults, particularly those who lived through the Vietnam era.

RATINGS
Disrespectful/Bad Attitude: Mild
Frightening/Suspenseful: Mild
Profanity: None
Sex: None
Substance Use: None
Mature Themes: Moderate
Violence: Moderate

SPECIFIC CONTENT
Disrespectful/Bad Attitude:
-Matt's baseball teammates call him "Frog-face" and "Matt-the-rat." They bully him when the coach isn't around.

Frightening/Suspenseful:

-Mildly disturbing scenes of Matt's Vietnamese mother pushing him into the helicopter to be taken away by the American soldiers.

Mature Themes:
-The novel speaks extensively about the ugliness of war and its aftermath.
-Matt deals with the negative feelings resulting from his biological father abandoning his family.
-Matt struggles with the fact that his biological mother gives him up for adoption even though she said she loved him. He fears that it will happen again.
-Coach Robeson gets cancer and Matt has to come to terms with the fact that his coach may die.

Violence:
-Repeated brief images of war with blood, screaming, and the smell of burnt flesh.
-Description of Vietnam veterans who have been maimed and/or disfigured in some way.
-Several scenes describing Matt's Vietnamese brother losing his legs and fingers after stepping on a mine.