September 1, 2012
Gr 8 Up-A former Navy SEAL describes his journey from aiding victims of violence to protecting people and, now, living a life of service. Modeling parts of his engaging memoir on the "Choose Your Own Adventure" stories he loved as a child, Greitens describes events along his path, preceding each with a short "You" segment presenting a moral dilemma taken from his own life. As a college student he began seeing the results of violence in the world with summers in China, Bosnia, and Rwanda. At home, he trained as a boxer to build his strength. After graduation he worked with Bolivian street children. At this point, halfway through the narrative, there is a series of black-and-white photographs. After a Rhodes scholarship to Oxford, realizing that "courage and compassion are two sides of the same coin," and determined to become someone who protected those in need, he joined the Navy SEALS. That difficult training takes up most of the second half of the book, which concludes with a few scenes from his service in Iraq; a description of The Mission Continues, his nonprofit organization; and an exhortation to readers to live lives of service as well. Adapted from the adult title The Heart and the Fist (Houghton, 2011), this volume has been rearranged, shortened, and streamlined in ways sure to appeal its new audience.-Kathleen Isaacs, Children's Literature Specialist, Pasadena, MD
Copyright 2012 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.