Hear the Wind Blow by Mary Downing Hahn - ADVISABLE

Hahn, Mary Downing Hear the Wind Blow, 271 pages.  Houghton Mifflin, 2003, 2017.  $8.  REPRINT.  Language: PG ( 5 swears, 0 ‘f’); Mature Content: G; Violence: PG-13 (hanging, war violence)

Haswell and his family are barely surviving on their Virginia farm during the American Civil War.  Their father has already died and they haven’t heard anything from the oldest son for months.  When a rebel soldier takes refuge with them and Union soldiers retaliate by burning down the farm buildings, Haswell has no choice but to make a desperate journey to take his sister to safety and enter the area of the most vicious fighting to find his brother – dead or alive. 

It was nice to see this title refreshed and reprinted. I am so used to Hahn’s ghost stories that this one always surprises me.  I also like it for its reminder that all kinds of people lived in the South during the Civil War and it is important to remember them and understand their stories.

EL, MS – ADVISABLE.  Cindy, Library Teacher