White, Ellen Emerson. The journal of Patrick Seamus Flaherty, United States Marine Corps. Khe Sanh, Vietnam, 1968.

WHITE, Ellen Emerson. The journal of Patrick Seamus Flaherty, United States Marine Corps. Khe Sanh, Vietnam, 1968. 188p. illus. 0-439-14890-1. Where have all the flowers gone? The diary of Molly MacKenzie Flaherty, Boston, Massachusetts, 1968. 181p. illus. 0-439-14889-8. Scholastic. (Dear America Series). c2002. $10.95 each. JS

These books fit together--brother and sister getting through a terrible period in their lives, and in their country's history. Each could be read separately, but the reader's understanding of the characters and their agonies would be diminished. It doesn't matter which one is read first, I think, because the time period is the same for both diaries. Patrick gets around using truly authentic Marine language by saying he is cleaning it up for the journal in case his family ever reads it. Patrick had enlisted as soon as he was 18 and by Christmas, 1967 he has finished boot camp and is in Vietnam. Soon he is transported to Khe Sanh, which is a target during the Tet Offensive (January 1968, vietnamese New Year). Marines dug in on isolated hills north, close to the Laotian border, and essentially were under siege for weeks, with many casualties--and Patrick is one of these Marines. Patrick describes the horror around him as friends get hit and die. He also writes about the closeness of the young men in this danger. Letters do get out to his family and come in, as helicopters fly in and out with meager supplies, taking away the dead and wounded and delivering mail.

At the same time, Molly, who is Patrick's 16-year-old sister, is back in Boston at high school, trying to keep her life going all the while worried sick about Patrick. Patrick and Molly's father is a firefighter, and his life isn't exactly a safe one, so the family is used to a level of worry. However, the news of the war and the Tet Offensive are all over the TV coverage and in magazines and newspapers, so they are terrified that Patrick will be hurt or killed. They read his "don't worry about me" letters, but know that things are really bad for him. Molly volunteers at a veterans' hospital, meeting young men like Patrick wounded in Vietnam. There are anti-war protests throughout Boston, and even her high school friends are fiercely divided about the war. Molly herself hates the war, but of course cares about Patrick and the other soldiers she meets.

Both of these teenagers are thoughtful about what is happening to them and their family and country. It is easy for the reader to like them both and to try to understand their situations. As Patrick says, he knows he made a mistake to volunteer for the war after the first few minutes of arriving in Vietnam--but he is there and he and his new buddies make the best of it, defending each other above all. The two books together give an accurate view of how young Americans were affected by the war in Vietnam, how they longed for peace, how they became disillusioned with the government and with those in authority. The author knows Boston well, so Molly's diary is helped by the sense of a real time and place. White has written other books for YAs about the Vietnam War that complement these diaries: The Road Home about a young nurse in Vietnam is still available in print.