2.5

A world of grey. Jack is a child who is a scholarship student, is being raised by a single mother, and is haunted by his father's death in the war. Jack despite his young age (11 years old) takes on the world on himself during a very confusing time in history. When his 'fiance' and him have a rocky path it doesn't help him feel like there are people for him. Jack feels alone in the world and different from all others in his life. Back to Bataan is a coming of age story during a busy time in history (WWII). It was well written so that the tale was a quick and easy read for its readers. I have never been an elevan year old boy so that might be why I did not connect real well to the main character so I'm sure males might relate better to him. I also found that the world that Jerome Charyn created was believable, both as a setting, but also because of the time frame. I had a slight problem though because both based on the blurb and the cover I thought that the characters would be older. This book was more MG then YA... ( )