April Morning

April Morning, Howard Fast, Bantam Books, 1961

This is the story of one day in the life of 15-year-old Adam Cooper, having the usual difficult son/father relationship with his father, Moses, a stubborn man who loves to argue about anything. Taking place in April, 1775 in Lexington, Massachusetts, one day word reaches the residents that the British are coming through on their way to a colonists' ammunition dump in Concord. The men of the town gather their weapons and meet the British on the town green hoping to convince them to leave Lexington alone. The British aren't in a talking mood.

When the smoke clears, several men, including Moses, lie dead, and Adam is running for his life with only a hunting musket. He meets up with some survivors from the town, and nearby towns, and over the next 24 hours they all get a crash course in war.

Fast does an excellent job with this book. He really has the reader crouched behind a stone wall, sweaty hands on a musket, never having killed another person before, but knowing that the British are just down the road, and soon it will be them or you. Strongly recommended.