39. My Brother Sam is Dead. James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier. 1974. 240 pages. [Source: Library] [3 stars, mg history, mg fiction]
First sentence: It was April, and outside in the dark the rain whipped against the windows of our tavern, making a sound like muffled drums.
Premise/plot: My Brother Sam is Dead is historical fiction for middle grade (and/or upper elementary grades). It is set during the American Revolution. The narrator, Timmy Meeker, spends the duration of the book confused by the complexities of war. He isn't really in favor or support of either side. He wants things to go back to normal. He hates that his brother Sam has been kicked out of the family for his "rebel" views and joining up with the Patriots. He knows his dad leans more towards being a Tory or Royalist. But also at the same time his dad has ALL THE OPINIONS that war is the worst thing on the planet.
My thoughts: This was my first time to read My Brother Sam is Dead. When I started it, I thought I would like it more than I did.
I picked up on the anti-war sentiment from the start. That didn't surprise me. I didn't expect war to be glamorized or idolized. I expected the view point to be war is UGLY, war is MESSY, war is TRAUMATIC, war is HORRIBLE. Many if not most books about war--any war--touch upon this ugliness, this trauma, this raw pain, this sorrow.
My Brother Sam Is Dead was written and published towards the end of the Vietnam War. Anti-war sentiment was high. America was also a few years away from celebrating the bicentennial. I don't know if either of these facts had any impact at all on the story these brothers were telling, were sharing. But it doesn't escape my attention that they might have wanted to remind readers that just because the war happened two hundred years ago, doesn't make it any less ugly, horrifying, terrifying, gross, disgusting, revolting, traumatizing. The "cause" they were fighting for did not negate the reality of war being what it fundamentally is.
I guess what surprised me, and probably shouldn't have, is the way Tim loses his father and his brother. Not the fact that both died--or either died. BUT the how. It isn't so much that Sam Meeker dies in the novel. It is the how and why. The father's death was sad and unnecessary, but it was the brother's death that turns the novel about.
I do think that adult readers may read the book differently perhaps. I'm not sure. I do know that this is a book that I never would have picked up as a kid or teen.
As an adult, I was seeing things not so much through Tim's eyes but through the eyes of his parents.
© 2026 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews
