Sonny's War

by Valerie Hobbs

After her father dies, fourteen-year-old Corin needs her brother, Sonny, more than ever. Sonny is quiet but he's a great listener, and Cory knows where she can always find him - in the garage, working on his car. Life isn't so bad as long as Sonny is around. But thousands of miles from the sleepy little town of Ojala, California, where all the kids can think about is partying and racing, a war is going on, and Sonny is just the right age to be drafted. When Sonny tells Cory he's going to Vietnam, she is devastated. What are she and her mom supposed to do while he's gone? What if he doesn't come back at all? The new substitute history teacher is the only one who seems to understand. Cory has never met anybody like Lawrence. He's young, he's handsome, and he's passionately against the war that took her brother away. As Cory turns to Lawrence for the comfort Sonny once gave, she finds herself wanting much more than Lawrence could ever provide.

In her latest novel, Valerie Hobbs eloquently depicts the feelings of loss, betrayal, and love felt by a young woman amid the confusion and excitement of the 1960s.

Genres: Young Adult, War

Hardcover

First published September 11, 2002

About the author

Valerie Hobbs is the author of many award winning novels for young adults including Sonnys War, Tender, and How Far Would You Have Gotten If I Hadnt Called You Back, for which she was designated a Flying Start author by Publishers Weekly in 1996. Hobbs was the winner of the 1999 PEN/Norma Klein award for an emerging voice of literary merit among American writers of childrens fiction and the Arizona Library Association Young Adult Author of the Year in 2003. Defiance, her most recent middle-grade novel, was given the 2006 most distinguished fiction award by the Childrens Literature Council of Southern California and has been nominated for twelve state awards. "

Reviews

[Shannon Bortz · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read the book Sonny's War by Valerie Hobbs, it is a Vietnam book. This book deals with the Vietnam and it explains in the first few chapter about what you have to do and how you get in the Vietnam. There are also some exclusions that u can get out of going to the Vietnam. In this case there dad had died. There was a lot of detail going right into the book and all through out. It painted a lot of pictures in my head it showed me it didn't tell me. I like how the book could relate to a lot of people with families like that. I was different than a lot of other Vietnam books I read. I actually liked this one.

The characters in this book change a lot I think. The little girl Cory in the beggining takes a lot of the role of a mom but she gets to be a kid when Sonny leaves and I think that kids can relate to that in some way. That when a parent dies you have to be all serious and you can't be yourself but as you go along in life you find out who you really are and you become. I think that this is the most relatable Vietnam book to kids, it really talks to the kids because kids don't really get a grasp on what happens in the wars and I think that this book really helps them.

[Santo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sonny's War by Valerie Hobbs. Sonny's war is a historical fiction and realistic fiction. The subject in this book is how Sonny's little sister Corin has to face that fact that her brother is going to war. I would recommend this book to middle school students and young adults. Sonny's war is a great and a interesting book.

Summarization
When Corin finds out her dad dies she is devastated. She's only 14 years old and now she depends on her brother to be there for her. Sonny has always been a good brother to Corin he always listens when she needs him to. Sonny is the type of boy who loves cars and also loves to race cars. He is always in the garage thats where you can find him most of his time. Corin and her family live in Ojala, California. Just when Corin thinks everything is going to be okay, suddenly her brother is drafted into war and when she finds out the news she is even more hurt. Her mother and her worry about Sonny because they want him to come back in one piece. After awhile Corin meets a boy lawrence who is a good looking boy and he is also against war and she ends up liking him.

[Alicia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hobbs paints a raw picture of a war that no one wanted to fight or fight in. Cory's family goes through many transitions, starting with the death of her father, then the deployment of her older brother, Sonny. She is left then to live with her mother who's having a hard go of reopening the restaurant that they ran, while keeping it together without worrying about her son. But the most poignant part is not Cory's infatuation with her hippie history teacher, instead it is the last few pages when Sonny returns from war, when Cory realizes that he's not the same, and like many, walks away from life, because it's too hard returning to a country when you have killed, feared for your life, and no longer know what happiness is.

A bird was singing, a mockingbird I knew it was, because it could do all these different songs without having any of its own. I wondered if it wanted to have its own song, or whether it wasn't just easier to copy another bird's song instead. Did it matter if you didn't have your own song?

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

After the death of her beloved father, fourteen-year-old Corin relies on her brother Sonny for compassion and support, but when Sonny is drafted for the war in Vietnam, Corin is devastated and turns to her new substitute history teacher for comfort, in a dramatic novel of love, loss, and betrayal set in the turbulent 1960s.

[Josie]

this book is incredible!!