The True Story of Lyndie B. Hawkinsby Gail Shepherd reminded me slightly of Gary Schmidt’s Okay for Now. Set in 1985, Lyndie Hawkins’ family is living with her dad’s parents, since Daddy is dealing with the aftermath of his experiences in the Vietnam war, and an awful lot of PTSD no one in the family wants to mention. Lyndie is a sassy first-person narrator with an underlying vulnerability that endears her to readers. She clashes terribly with her grandmother, and falls into habitual lying in order to cover up the obvious issues her father is dealing with. This lying puts a strain on Lyndie’s relationships with her friends and teachers. Eventually, she will have to examine herself and decide to either protect her family no matter what, or stand up for what’s right even if it causes her family pain.
This is a lovely story about friendship and honesty, and deals with the very real issue of PTSD in war veterans, and that the greater love is to face the truth of their issues rather than hiding the reality of their instability to protect the family name. I recommend this to anyone who enjoys a good geared-toward-children historical fiction.
Review of an Advance Reading Copy
This book was sent to Compass Book Ratings for review by Kathy Dawson Books
Content Analysis:
Profanity/Language: 1 religious exclamation; 3 mild obscenities; 1 scatological word.
Violence/Gore: A few instances of mild to moderate violence, including but not limited to: Characters frequently lie to protect a family’s reputation; mention of a character being half-blind from shrapnel; characters attend a funeral; a woman smashes out windowpanes; a husband and wife frequently argue and fight; a man is reported to have lost his job; a character suffers from headaches; implication of a death being suspicious; a girl plays truant from school and is grounded; a report of a character fighting in a war; a character is bullied and called names; a character hears gunshots and sees another character shooting a pistol; a man is absent from his home for a long time; a girl punches a boy; best friends argue and fight; a character reports an abusive childhood; a character reports deaths of family members and a foster parent; report of suicide; a grandmother and granddaughter frequently argue; report of someone getting chewed by a rat; report of a woman’s brother dying; many instances of characters recalling war and deaths in war; a man threatens physical harm to a boy; characters lie to the police; characters visit someone in a hospital; report of a character suffering PTSD.
Sex/Nudity: Mention of characters in the past protesting violence by taking off their bras and burning them; a husband and wife sleep together; a boy jokes that a girl is in love with him; report of a husband and wife sleeping in separate beds, but holding hands between beds; a husband and wife flirt.
Mature Subject Matter:
Death of a friend; suicide; war; PTSD; unemployment; addictions; unintentional emotional child abuse; physical child abuse; marriage difficulties; smoking.
Alcohol / Drug Use:
A girl finds whiskey in her dad’s glove box; a woman chews aspirin; a man frequently sneaks shots of whiskey; a man gets drunk a couple of times; report of characters meeting at a bar; picture of people smoking; a man smells like whiskey; a man pulls out a flask and takes a drink; a character drinks too much.
