The Last Full Measure by Ann Rinaldi

Rinaldi, Ann The Last Full Measure, 224 p. Harcourt (Houghton), 2010. $17.  Language: PG (15 swears, 0 “F”), Violence – PG (war, soldier violence).  Tacy, 14, is the only girl at her family’s Gettysburg home.  And while her father and other brothers are fighting for the Union, her older brother David, who has an injury, is forced to keep Tacy in line.  But Tacy has other ideas and when the Civil War approaches her village and her very home, she will do what she sees fit to help the efforts, even if it strains relations with David to the breaking point.  Instead of putting us on the Gettysburg battlefield with a soldier, Rinaldi shows us that war through the eyes of civilians, doing it in that skillful way that almost reaches the brilliance of her earlier novels – all it lacks is breadth to go with the depth.  While the book is short, it is a crucial piece of historic fiction that boys and girls should enjoy.  EL, MS – ADVISABLE.  Cindy, Library Teacher