Almost Forever - Couverture rigide

Testa, Maria

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 0763619965 ISBN 13 : 9780763619961

Editeur : Candlewick Pr, 2003

Synopsis

Book by Testa Maria

A propos du livre

Extrait

CHRISTMAS 1967

We were all together
decorating
the Christmas tree
the day the orders came
for Daddy,
Special Delivery.

Daddy opened
the envelope
slowly,
unfolded the letter,
and said only one word:
Vietnam.

Mama sat down
right there
on the floor,
right there
in front of the tree.
I leave in February,
Daddy said.

It was 1967.
And we never finished
decorating
the Christmas tree.

DOCTORS DON'T FIGHT

Daddy needed
to explain
to my brother
and me
what doctors do
when they go
to war:
Doctors don’t fight.
We take care of
the people
who get hurt
in the fighting.

"Doctors get hurt, too,"
Mama
needed
to say.
"Bullets and bombs
do not care
that you went
to medical school."
ONE YEAR (NOT SUCH A LONG TIME)

The four of us
gathered
with other families,
we all gathered
in a building
on the Army base,
all in a special room
set aside
for saying goodbye.

One year
is not
such a long time,
Daddy said,
kneeling on one knee
in front of me,
squeezing
my shoulders.

In one year, Baby,
you’ll be in
second grade,
not first,
and you’ll be
seven years old,
not six,
and then
I’ll be home.
One year
is not
such a long time.

I did not
tell Daddy
that he was wrong —
that second grade
was half a hallway
and a whole world
away from first,
that seven
was everything
six was not,
and that one year
was forever.

Présentation de l'éditeur

A spare, lyrical - and ultimately heartening - novel about one family’s experience during the Vietnam War that has much to say to a new generation of readers.


Doctors don’t fight; doctors heal. But when the young narrator of Maria Testa’s lyric novel watches her father march off to serve a year in the U.S. Army Medical Corps, a year seems like a very long time. A year is a long time when you’re waiting for letters, waiting for word. A year seems endless when you don’t know where your father is anymore. A year is almost forever when you’re wondering . . . and forgetting.

Through the eyes of an observant child, Maria Testa, author of the critically acclaimed BECOMING JOE DIMAGGIO, has written a taut and tender American ballad of one family’s experience in the year 1968 - a year that would be a turning point in both U.S. involvement in South Vietnam and American public opinion.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Candlewick Pr
• Date d'édition: 2003
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 0763619965
• ISBN 13: 9780763619961
• Reliure: Relié
• Nombre de pages: 80
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: Acco Brands Italia S.r.l.; leitzaccosupport@acco.com; ; Strada della Merla, 49/B; Settimo Torinese; 10036; Italie