Full Text Review(s)
"This story of Lonzo and his extended family’s struggles and losses during the early years of the Civil War is based on the author’s family history. Two of Lonzo’s uncles and his cousin enlist to fight for the Confederacy. When they learn of the uncles’ deaths, aunt Mariah stirs up poison biscuits, expecting the Yankee soldiers that are garrisoned in the family inn to eat the biscuits. Lonzo, although mentally challenged, bravely saves grandpa and grandma from eating the biscuits. The events give older readers much to think about. Younger readers will enjoy the family story and the accounts of the Civil War. With threads of symbolism, family dynamics, and questions about bravery and war, this is a book to encourage discussion, especially as students are aware of modern war in the Middle East. A final author’s note extends the appeal of this book with photos of the actual Rosson House, Alonzo’s headstone, and the deep cut. Background of what actually happened at the Culpeper Inn is presented with a brief diagram of the Rosson family tree. Recommended. Ann Bryan Nelson, Educational Consultant, Storyteller, & Instructor, Kids ‘n’ Stuff of Albion, Michigan"

"Lonzo Rosson, 13, is thought to be "slow" (mentally challenged) and soft by his father. He craves Papa’s approval and his actions are always directed to that end. A subplot revolves around the extended Rosson family of Culpeper, VA, and their involvement in the Civil War. When the war begins, Lonzo is too young to fight and doesn’t want to as he sees no need to kill, but his two uncles enlist and his cousin runs away to join the Confederate Army. Their departure leaves his widowed Aunt Mariah to run an inn and a small farm by herself. Lonzo is sent to stay with her and help out. The family sees a lot of both armies, and the inn is taken over for officers’ quarters by the Union Army. The story covers the war years, and readers see Lonzo maturing, but not changing in his belief that fighting doesn’t solve anything. This story illustrates how civilians were involved in the conflict, how families were decimated, and how people valiantly tried, in the midst of it all, to carry on some semblance of a normal life. This story would work well in a group of supplemental or parallel reading choices. –Nancy P. Reeder, Heathwood Hall Episcopal School, Columbia, SC"

*"In this fine novel based partly on Spain’s family history, quiet, sensitive Lonzo, who is 13 when the story begins, endures the chaos and tragedy that the Civil War brings to his small Virginia village. Culpeper is strategically situated between Richmond and Washington and teems with military activity soon after the war begins. After his uncles, favorite cousin, and pal Ferdy join the Confederates, Lonzo is sent to help his aunt Mariah run her inn. When Yankee soldiers pass through and eventually take up residence in the inn and other localities around town, civilians suffer humiliating and near-starvation: "Everything was overturned and battered, like a storm had plowed through my family," says Lonzo. Readers won’t soon forget Spain’s gripping wartime anecdotes, as when Lonzo races desperately along the Deep Cut (a railroad gorge through the nearby hills) to thwart his desperate, grief-stricken aunt’s plot to murder Yankees. His success finally earns the approval of his father, who had heretofore considered the boy "slow." Well-wrought characters, vivid historical details, and nuanced themses, such as Lonzo’s evolving opinions about slavery and Yankees, combine to tell a powerful story about the impact of the Civil War on ordinary lives. For another glimpse of children enduring in the embattled South, steer middle-graders to Kathleen Ernst’s Hearts of Stone (2006).— Anne O’Malley" STARRED REVIEW

"While others in the Virginia town of Culpeper, Va., see glamour and glory as the Civil War begins, Lonzo, at 13, is less enthusiastic. As the war progresses, the boy, considered slow by his shopkeeper father, sees only death, disease, destruction, hunger and danger. He meets bad Union soldiers and good ones. He meets bad Confederate soldiers and good ones. When his Aunt Mariah, who runs an inn, poisons some biscuits for Yankee marauders after she learns of the battlefield death of her sons, he realizes that it will be his grandparents who will eat them and races to the inn through the cut and throws them away. Lonzo is a kindly, hardworking and thoughtful young man as he grows over the years of the war. Told in the first person, he rises from the page as a believable and admirable character in a different story of that war. A fast read that should hold readers in its fair presentation of one of the tragedies of U.S. history."

"Thirteen-year-old Lonzo lives near Culpepper, Virginia, at a time when the Civil War has just begun. Lonzo is a kind hearted boy, one who struggles to learn as well as to connect with his father. As the Civil War touches the lives of Lonzo and his family, he quickly sees all the pain that can come from such struggle. Two uncles who go off to fight for the Confederacy perish. A young cousin runs off to serve and returns home damaged. Yankee soldiers invade his area and Lonzo becomes involved in feelings of anger and confusion. Lonzo also watches one of his relatives lose a number of family members and become overwhelmed by grief and hatred. In the end, Lonzo discovers that there are emotions more powerful than hate and that he has talents far greater than even he ever realized before. This book is a historical novel of depth and value. In this book, Susan Rosson Spain has taken an event from her family’s history and transformed it slightly to tell a compelling story. This is a well written novel, one that combines a strong coming-of-age tale with historical accuracy."