Book Review : Across Five Aprils

Across Five Aprils is a thrilling tale of love and hate. Jethro Creighton is a young boy who lived during the Civil War. He has 3 brothers in the Union Army, but he also has a brother on the Confederate side. I found the themes and ideas in the story very powerful, and it had an impact on me.

Across Five Aprils taught me the meaning of family. I learned that you should closely protect your family, because they are all that you truly have. Jethro, the main character of the book, defends his brother Bill in front of Wortman, even though Bill is a Confederate soldier. If you lose members of your family, even if you fought with them, you would still feel devastated.

The book also showed me the irrationality of hatred. Due to hatred, you lose your sense of reason. For example, Wortman and his gang tarred up the Creighton’s well, and tried to kill Jethro, just because his brother was a confederate soldier. They ignored the fact that although Jethro has one brother in the confederate army, he has three brothers in the union army. 

Lastly, the book taught me the dangers of war. In history, all we learn about is how war should not happen, and how the wars were fought. However, through literature, we are truly able to understand the struggles that people faced during times of war. In literature, we are given a first-person perspective of events, instead of just the far-off account of a historian who was nowhere close to the action. Before reading Across Five Aprils, I didn’t really have a thorough understanding of the civil war. I just knew the basics - who fought whom, and what the causes were. However, I did not understand the depth of the sorrow and anguish caused by war. 

Across Five Aprils was a powerful novel that greatly affected me. I loved every inch of the book and poured myself into reading it. Every time I tried to put it down, I came across a cliffhanger, and got hooked again. When authors write a book, they always leave a message or two behind for the reader. The messages of Across Five Aprils were that family matters, hatred is irrational, and war is dangerous. I would give this book a rating of 5/5.