With legislation introduced into the United States House in December 2001 seeking to institute universal military service for young men this is a work of young adult fiction that has a timely theme. Slap Your Sides deals with the decisions young people of another generation had to make in the face of being called to war.

The book opens in 1942 with the Shoemaker family seeing the oldest son Bud leave on a train for Colorado. Bud is a Quaker and has made the decision not to join the military service. Instead the train will bring him to a Civilian Public Service camp. The path that Bud has chosen is not an easy one, as his younger brothers, Tommy and Jubal, learn through the letters he writes home. Bud has difficulty finding value in the work he is doing, though his commitment not to be part of the military remains strong. Through the letters he writes home, the reader sees Bud making a real effort to find useful service that does not involve support for the war.

Although it is telling Bud's story, the book is told from the point of view of Jubal. From him, a clear picture emerges of the impact that Bud's decision has had on the life of their family. The family's business suffers because Friends are not seen as being patriotic and the marriage becomes strained. People from the town call them names, and even neighbors are less than sympathetic to the family. This helps the reader glimpse what it must have been like to live in these times. The decisions the main characters make are complex ones that have repercussions for those they love. Other Friends make different decisions. One refuses to register for the selective service and is sent to prison, other Friends join the war effort, but as non-combatants, and still others decide this war is just and choose to fight. Slap Your Sides makes clear that all decisions that involve war bring their own kinds of sorrow.

The author leans on her own memories of WWII, and how her town treated a young man who refused to fight, while her own brother did fight in the war. Unless one had been through it, it might be hard to imagine the pressure and the nastiness that people on the homefront experience in times of war. Friends should be cautioned that this book is not written with a deep understanding of Quakerism. The difficulties of holding beliefs that mainstream people do not possess is dealt with in an interesting way. However, the author doesn't focus on the spiritual basis of Friends' belief.

Many young Friends are already aware of the difficulties of being Friends during a popular war. Many of them, both young men and women, are wondering about the choices they might have to make if the draft is reinstituted, and are dealing with their own feelings toward selective service registration. I think that Slap Your Sides would interest high school and middle school Friends, as well as older Friends who read young adult books.

You can get Slap Your Sides by M.E. Kerr from Quakerbooks of FGC

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