Review: I Had Seen Castles

Rylant, Cynthia. I Had Seen Castles. New York: Harcourt, 1993.

As an old man, John reminisces about coming of age in the midst of World War II. The things he saw, the things he did as a young soldier changed who he was.

What I thought: For a small book (97 pages), this certainly packs a punch. Through John's narration, I experienced all the things he did. I felt his heartbreak as he lost his idenity to the war, as he saw the sacrifices his family made. I felt his terror as he waited in a hole on the front lines for death to claim someone. Looking back on the boy he was and the man he becomes, John comes to grips with the war. This would be a great book to read when studying WWII.