Sunrise over Fallujah.

Myers, Walter Dean (author).

Myers earned a Coretta Scott King award for Fallen Angels (1988), about Richie, a young, black soldier who faces confusing missions, enemies indistinguishable from civilians, and a country that resents its so-called liberators. That book dealt with Vietnam, but the same description applies to this moving companion, set in Iraq. Narrated by Richie’s nephew, Robin, this novel plunges readers into Operation Iraqi Freedom. The violence encountered by Robin’s supposedly low-risk, mixed-gender Civil Affairs team demolishes expectations of a “textbook war” and leaves the recent enlistee burdened with anxiety, as if “every gun had an eye on the end that was looking for [him].” Such remarks are emblematic of the spare, authentic power of Myers’ writing, which reveals both the universal emotions of warfare and its contemporary specifics—from embedded reporters to women warriors (one of whom experiences an attempted rape). Unfortunately, readers learn more about the situation than about Robin himself, who tends to be upstaged by his vibrant supporting cast. Another weak point is a melodramatic, heavily foreshadowed tragedy at the book’s climax. Even so, this offers a compelling, close-up look at a war that has raged for a large percentage of teens’ lives, and together, this novel and Fallen Angels deliver a searing statement about how the lessons of history go unheeded as the fog of war envelops generation after generation. A new paperback edition of Fallen Angels will build interest in both books; recommenders should note that the language and violence in the earlier title are markedly more graphic.