A kid filled with rage, suspended from the football team for unsportsmanlike conduct, and his father, newly home from the war in Afghanistan, reckon with the injuries theyve caused to others and themselves in this unflinching middle grade novel in verse about love and forgiveness.Hazards a military kid, best known for his prowess at football, and his short fuse. His dads been in Afghanistan, third tour. The worry and the pressure over school and his dad are getting to Hazard until one day, the fuse sets off and the repercussions have him benched for six games and assigned to go to therapy. Which is where his dad is as well, at Walter Reed Medical Center, because hes home nowwell, most of him. Hazards dads now learning to walk with a prosthetic, but thats not his primary injury. His worst wound is a moral injury: what he did on the battleground that he may never be able to forgive himself for. As part of Hazards therapy, he has to trace back the causes of his own anger by tracing back his fathers journey, through letters and emails and texts, so that he can come to terms with what he himself has donehis own moral injuryand help his father overcome his own.

 

 

This book is aimed at children at US 4th grade-8th grade.

This book has been graded for interest at 9-13 years.

There are 160 pages in this book. This book was published in 2022 by Simon & Schuster .

Frances O Roark Dowell is the editor and co-founder of Dream/Girl, an arts magazine for girls and has been Poet in Residence at Duke University. She has had dozens of poems published in literary journals, and is the author of two previous children's novels, Dovey Coe and Where I'd Like to Be. She lives in North Carolina with her husband and two sons.