The Cemetery Keepers of Gettysburg
Grade 1-5–Fred Thorn, the seven-year-old son of the caretaker of Gettysburg's Evergreen Cemetery, narrates this fictionalized account of his family's experiences during the 1863 Civil War battle. With Papa away fighting, Fred's pregnant mother was left to tend the cemetery, assisted only by her children and parents. During the battle, they fled to a nearby farmhouse full of wounded soldiers. When the conflict ended, they returned home to dig more than a hundred graves, with little outside help. Papa came back several months later, and the brief saga closes with the family attending Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. The watercolor illustrations add atmosphere to Fred's spare telling. The design is attractive, with one- and two-page paintings, smaller vignettes, and text columns framed on elegant plaques. The interiors and landscapes provide helpful period detail and scope. Clean brown-ink lines keep grittiness at bay, and the battle scenes are dramatic without being gory. The narrative is immediate and intimate, though it has a removed, slightly stiff quality. There is no demonizing of one side over the other and little detail about the war. No sources are cited, though a brief author's note tells a bit more about the Thorns. Endpapers show a map of Gettysburg, with significant landmarks labeled (accurately, for the most part). Unpardonably, east and west have been reversed on the compass rose. Still, this could be an interesting footnote to Civil War studies, especially given its focus on regular folks–and a woman, in particular.–Nancy Palmer, The Little School, Bellevue, WACopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.