Operation Iraqi Freedom, that's the code name. But the young men and women in the military's Civil Affairs Battalion have a simpler name for it: WAR.In this new novel, Walter Dean Myers looks at a contemporary war with the same power and searing insight he brought to the Vietnam war of his classic, FALLEN ANGELS. He creates memorable characters like the book's narrator, Birdy, a young recruit from Harlem who's questioning why he even enlisted; Marla, a blond, tough-talking, wisecracking gunner; Jonesy, a guitar-playing bluesman who just wants to make it back to Georgia and open a club; and a whole unit of other young men and women and drops them incountry in Iraq, where they are supposed to help secure and stabilize Iraq and successfully interact with the Iraqi people. The young civil affairs soldiers soon find their definition of "winning" ever more elusive and their good intentions being replaced by terms like "survival" and "despair."Caught in the crossfire, Myers' richly rendered characters are just beginning to understand the meaning of war in this powerful, realistic novel of our times. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

Here it is at last--the novel that will allow American teens to grapple intelligently and thoughtfully with the war in Iraq. Robin Perry, nephew of the soldier central to Myers's Vietnam novel Fallen Angels, has joined up because, as he fumblingly writes to his uncle on the eve of the invasion in 2003, "I felt like crap after 9-11 and I wanted to do something, to stand up for my country." Massing in Kuwait, assigned to a Civil Affairs unit, he finds that his motives continue to elude him as he assesses his fellow soldiers, all of whom seem tougher, braver, better directed. Even as the author exposes Robin's ambivalent feelings and doubts, he re-creates the climate of the earliest days of the war, when victory seems definable and soldiers credibly talk in March or April of being home by Christmas. Robin serves more as a lens on the war than as a narrator whose voice surprises or compels the reader. His comrades, too, conform to type; rather than individuals, they are representatives of characters familiar to war movies and genre fiction: the soulful musician whose awareness of irony does not stop him from heroism; the medic who defies military protocol in her humanitarianism; the tough-talking gunner--female--who quips her way through danger. In this novel, the conventions are helpful: they ground the reader. For as the Civil Affairs unit moves from a mission of winning "hearts and minds" to having to apologize for the "collateral damage" of having bombed a school and killed children in the "fog of war," the characters realize they are in the middle of many wars, none of which they understand. Readers will get a sense of the complexities of the war, and of the ways the rank-and-file, as represented by Robin, are slowly drawn into covert or morally dubious engagement. The action builds toward a climax that is affecting despite being easily foreseen. At the end, when Robin writes his uncle one last letter, asking, "[A]re there really enough words to make [kids] understand [about war]," the book itself dares readers to lift that question off the page; it is a forceful bid for their hearts and minds. Ages 12-up. (May) Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Gr 8 Up-Instead of heading to college as his father wishes, Robin leaves Harlem and joins the army to stand up for his country after 9/11. While stationed in Iraq with a war looming that he hopes will be averted, he begins writing letters home to his parents and to his Uncle Richie, the main character from Myers's acclaimed Vietnam War novel, Fallen Angels (Scholastic, 1988). Robin finds himself in a diverse Civil Affairs unit of both men and women, with a mission to serve as a buffer between winning over the Iraqi people and concurrent military operations. As the war unfolds, the military angle of Robin's job escalates, and he experiences increasing horrors of violence, death, destruction, insecurity, sorrow, and extreme fear. Ultimately, he comprehends the reasons Uncle Richie never wanted to talk to their family about what happened in Vietnam, saying, "-are there really enough words to make them understand?" Myers brilliantly freeze-frames the opening months of the current Iraq War by realistically capturing its pivotal moments in 2003 and creating a vivid setting. Memorable characters share instances of wry levity that balance the story without deflecting its serious tone. Through precise, believable dialogue as the catalyst, tame compared to that warranted in Fallen Angels, Myers's expert portrayal of a soldier's feelings and perspectives at the onset of this controversial war allows the circumstances to speak for themselves.-Diane P. Tuccillo, Fort Collins Regional Library District, CO Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Myers earned a Coretta Scott King award for Fallen Angels (1988), about Richie, a young, black soldier who faces confusing missions, enemies indistinguishable from civilians, and a country that resents its so-called liberators. That book dealt with Vietnam, but the same description applies to this moving companion, set in Iraq. Narrated by Richie's nephew, Robin, this novel plunges readers into Operation Iraqi Freedom. The violence encountered by Robin's supposedly low-risk, mixed-gender Civil Affairs team demolishes expectations of a  textbook war and leaves the recent enlistee burdened with anxiety, as if every gun had an eye on the end that was looking for him.  Such remarks are emblematic of the spare, authentic power of Myers' writing, which reveals both the universal emotions of warfare and its contemporary specifics from embedded reporters to women warriors (one of whom experiences an attempted rape). Unfortunately, readers learn more about the situation than about Robin himself, who tends to be upstaged by his vibrant supporting cast. Another weak point is a melodramatic, heavily foreshadowed tragedy at the book's climax. Even so, this offers a compelling, close-up look at a war that has raged for a large percentage of teens' lives, and together, this novel and Fallen Angels deliver a searing statement about how the lessons of history go unheeded as the fog of war envelops generation after generation. A new paperback edition of Fallen Angels will build interest in both books; recommenders should note that the language and violence in the earlier title are markedly more graphic.--Mattson, Jennifer Copyright 2008 Booklist From: Syndetics Solutions, Inc. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.