Ghosts of War
The True Story of a 19-Year-Old GI
By Ryan Smithson
(HarperTeen, Hardcover, 9780061664687, 336pp.)
Publication Date: May 2009
Other Editions of This Title: Library Binding, Paperback
Categories: Biography & Autobiography - General, History - Military & Wars, Social Issues - General
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Ryan Smithson joined the Army Reserve when he was seventeen. Two years later, he was deployed to Iraq as an Army engineer. In this extraordinary and harrowing memoir, readers march along one GI's tour of duty. It will change the way you feel about what it means to be an American.
Ryan Smithson joined the Army Reserve and was deployed to Iraq as an engineer at the age of nineteen. Upon returning, he earned an AAS degree in criminal justice. Specialist Smithson doesn't know if he'll be deployed again. He currently works for the American Red Cross as a mobile unit assistant and lives with his wife in upstate New York.
He lucidly recounts the intensity of battle and the pain of losing comrades. For Smithson, the war is a source of personal enlightenment, and this memoir is a remarkable, deeply penetrating read that will compel teens to reflect on their own thoughts about duty, patriotism and sacrifice. (Memoir. YA)
-Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
A tough but powerful look at one man’s experience.
-School Library Journal (starred review)
Smithson avoids writing either prowar propaganda or an antimilitary polemic, providing instead a fascinating, often humorous-and occasionally devastating-account of the motivations and life of a contemporary soldier.
-Publishers Weekly
Unflinchingly honest.
-Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
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