John Neufeld

A SMALL CIVIL WAR --- in a small Midwestern town, a rip-roaring young woman in 8th grade fights the forces of  book censorship.

At 13, Georgia Van Buren knows where she stands on everything important: music, clothes, books, videos --- and boys, if only she had one of her own. Her older sister, Ava, does --- thoughtful, muscular Martin Brady, a senior at Owanka High and older son of the chairperson of the city council.

Ava also has the ability to watch, listen, and decide. Georgia goes off like a cannon.Georgia's latest crisis erupts just minutes before she meets Con Arrand, two years older than she, and a young man of wide travels and experience.

Georgia flirts and falls. So does Con. At the same time, all around them, their friends, neighbors and families are erupting in anger, dismay and violence as censorship rears its fabled head just as national and Iowa elections are being held.

Is Martin's father using the furor over a book in the 10th grade curriculum to propel his own ambitions? How can something as small and insignificant as a book, anyway, make people go off the deep end and fight with their neighbors and sometimes even within their own famililes?

A SMALL CIVIL WAR is the story of how an idea came to reveal to memebers of one family their  differences and their convictions. What each member learns may be disappointing or reassuring, dispiriting or triumphant. But no member is unchanged.

WRITE YOUR OWN REVIEW AND SEND IT TO ME AT: jnbooks@sbcglobal.net

Next Book