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Gr 9 Up—An ambitious treatise on grief, war, memory, and the bonds between fathers and sons. Evan is 16 when his beloved father dies suddenly at home. Evan has no other family, so his estranged grandfather, Griff, whom he has never met, flies in to help him settle the affairs. The source of the family schism was the Vietnam War, when Evan's hippie father moved to Canada to dodge the draft, infuriating his father, a lifelong Marine. While going through his father's belongings, Evan happens upon a Japanese diary detailing a marooned s...Log In or Sign Up to Read More

"So much of grief is unlearning," observes Wynne-Jones in this perceptive and multi-layered page-turner. When Evan's single father, Clifford, dies suddenly, the high-schooler must work through his own grief while dealing with Clifford's estranged father Griff, a military man who Clifford had claimed was a murderer. Griff's also a control freak and is somehow tied to the strange book that was sent to Clifford just before he died. As Evan reads the book—the translated journal of a WWII Japanese soldier stranded on a mystical island with an American Marine plane-c...Log In or Sign Up to Read More

A strange book was sent to Evan's father just before his sudden death. As Evan reads the book--the translated journal of a WWII Ja...Log In or Sign Up to Read More