A review by jackiehorne
My Brother Sam Is Dead by Christopher Collier, James Lincoln Collier

3.0

I first read this book in elementary school, probably when I was in fifth or sixth grade. The country was deep into celebrating the Bicentennial, especially in New England where I grew up, and I was thrilled when I found this book on the shelves in the school library. Little did I know what it had in store for me. The Colliers present the American Revolution not from the "yeah, let's celebrate how great the rebels were" side, but from the point of view of revisionist history of the 70s, which was beginning to look at the darker sides of the colonial revolt. Tim, our point of view character, is torn about the revolt; his father was completely against it, but his revered older brother, Sam, ran away from college in order to join Washington's army. Father, ironically, ends up dying at the hands of the British, while Sam, as we know from the book's title, dies too, also ironically, executed to serve as a lesson to his fellow rebel soldiers against stealing colonists' cattle to feed the army. This was dark, heady, thought-provoking stuff for a twelve year old, especially one who had been drawn to history because of all the celebration around the Bicentennial. I remember being so shocked: children's books are supposed to end happily, aren't then?

A few years ago, I reread the book, and found it so disappointing from a literary point of view. Oh, the lessons it taught me were still there, but they were presented in a very flat, heavy handed way, and without much in the way of compelling character development.

If I ever taught a class on children's historical fiction, though, I would definitely include this (along with JOHNNY TREMAINE and something more recent) to compare different eras' attitudes towards American revolutionary history.