If you’re looking for a great young adult read, look no further than All the Broken Pieces, by Ann E. Burg—an award-winning young adult novel written in poetry that was just beautiful.
I picked up All the Broken Pieces because a book I was reading mentioned it. I’m a sucker for books written in verse, and when I saw what this one was about, I knew I had to add it to my list. Usually, when something gets added to my list, it takes me a while to get to it, but novels in verse have a little bit more priority.
All the Broken Pieces is about a boy named Matt Pin who comes to live in the states after suffering some of the horrors of the Vietnam War. He carries around scars that he tries to keep hidden, because they’re shameful and frightening and too horrible to speak aloud. Throughout the book, Matt is faced with discrimination, the flare of his memories, fear of abandonment and loneliness created by the secrets he tries to keep inside. But he is forced to confront his nightmarish past and choose between blame or forgiveness and fear or freedom.
This story was only about 22,000 words, which is short for a young adult novel, but it was full of hope and heart and history—proving that you don’t need a whole lot of words to write a beautiful book. That’s probably what I loved most about it.
Burg employed a sort of mystery around Matt’s past that kept a reader engaged and interested in what was going to happen to Matt. There was also some tension on his baseball team when a boy told Matt that his brother died in the war because of Matt. The words, “My brother died because of you” are never easy words to hear, and Matt believed his teammate for a time.
Matt is an endearing character—readers feel sorry for him and yet we also root hard for him, because we love him and his innocence and his sadness. All the Broken Pieces was Burg’s debut novel and was beautiful, harrowing and an important contribution to the young adult genre.
Here’s a passage that demonstrates the mystery Burg wove around Matt’s past and also the lovely cadence of her language:
“I have a new brother.
He doesn’t look like me.
I’m too much fall—
wet brown leaves
under a darkening sky.
Tommy is summer—
sunlight, peaches,
wide, grinning sky.
Even Tommy’s hair is summer.
Curls cling to his scalp like
the yellow-and-white sweet corn
at McGreevy’s Market.
Only one straight tuft sticks up,
like a clump of sun-scorched hay.”
Matt feels tension in his surroundings—the difference between America and his home, as you can see from this passage:
“There re no mines here,
no flames, no screams,
no sounds of helicopters
or shouting guns.I am safe.
How can I
be home?”
And, lastly, here’s a passage the demonstrates the complex character we have in Matt, as he tries to describe what Vietnam is to him now.
“My Vietnam is
only
a pocketful
of broken pieces
I carry
inside me.”
I hope you enjoyed these book recommendations. Be sure to pick up a free book from my starter library and visit my recommends page to see some of my favorite books. If you have any books you recently read that you think I’d enjoy, contact me. I always enjoy adding to my list. Even if I never get through it all.
