The Bombs That Brought Us Together by Brian Monaghan - NO

Conaghan, Brian The Bombs That Brought Us Together, 304 pages.  Bloomsbury, 2016.  $18.  Langauge: R (90 swears, 6 ‘f’); Mature Content: PG-13 (multiple sexual innuendos and sexual remarks); Violence: PG-13 (beatings).

Charlie and his parents live in Little Town, a small place with a hard scrabble existence, ruled by the Big Man, the local mob boss.  There is a government, but everyone knows Big Man is the real power.  Their next door neighbors, Old Country, seem to be determined to invade.  When Charlie meets an Old Country refugee, he takes the strange young man under his wing.  When Old Country does invade, Charlie has many tough decisions to make. 

With references to Anne Frank and Ghandi, this is seems to be some kind of post-apocalyptic world, but the context clues don’t make anything easy to understand in terms of time and place.  Charlie makes a gut-wrenching decision right at the end of the book, but none of what he does compels me to share this with anyone else.  I would suggest “Tomorrow When the War Began” by James Marsden for a similar and more compelling read.

NOT RECOMMENDED.  Cindy, Library Teacher