by Irene Hunt
First published 1994
Jethro Creighton starts as a boy working alongside his family on their Illinois farm. When the Civil War begins, his older brothers march off to fight on opposite sides of the conflict. His father falls ill, leaving young Jethro to shoulder the burden of keeping the farm running and the family fed. The war years test him in ways he never imagined. Neighbors turn hostile when they learn his family is divided by the conflict. Jethro must make adult decisions about crops, money, and survival while still learning to read and write. He watches his mother struggle with worry for her sons and tends to his ailing father. As months turn to years, the boy who once played in the fields transforms into someone who understands responsibility and loss. The farm becomes both his burden and his anchor as the nation tears itself apart around him.
Genres: family, american-civil-war, american-fiction, 20th-century, american, 19th-century, family-drama, american-history
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, thought-provoking
Tropes: coming-of-age, found-family
Setting: Illinois
Period: Civil War