Across Five Aprils Analysis

Time to dust off those maps of the United States. The Creightons live in Jasper County, Illinois, right on the cusp of the South—so close, in fact, that Matt would guess that "eighty percent of t...

This narrator knows all the whozits and whatzits, and to top it all off, time and space is of no concern to them. In one moment we're smack dab in the middle of a Shad and Jeth hangout, and then al...

This book spans five Aprils and covers a huge chunk of Jethro's young adolescence, so there's pretty much no way this isn't a coming-of-age tale. Still have doubts? Let's focus in on death and comp...

We don't expect a book about the Civil War to be all bright and cheery, but Hunt makes sure that we feel the overbearing dread of war just like Jethro and the Creightons. There is a lot of darknes...

Across Five Aprils transports readers back to the mid-1800s, and not just by telling a Civil War story—nope, by making us feel like we're right there in the middle of all the action. And one of t...

Some titles are tricky, but this one is not. The book is literally set across five Aprils. From Fort Sumter in April of 1861 to Lincoln's assassination in April of 1865, the fourth month of the cal...

Jethro is gutted when he learns that Lincoln has been assassinated, and see finds no "beauty in the world around him or any serenity in his heart" (12.71). Lincoln was a symbol of struggle and hope...

Here's the thing about books set in the past: in the 1800s people talked way differently. And if an author is good at their job, they make sure that the ol' timey dialect and jargon blends right in...

War is in the AirThe whole Creighton clan is working on the farm and waiting to hear back from Shadrach Yale regarding the impending war. We are introduced to the whole family: Matt, Ellen, Jethro,...

Most battles have two names because the Union would take the name from a nearby waterway while the Confederacy named their battles after close by cities or towns. (Source.) With 620,000 death, the...

Nothing to worry about here, kids. The only action going on in his book is the action on the battlefield, and the steamiest thing on the farm is Jenny's crush on Shad. In other words, grab your gra...

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