Robin Perry is the nephew of Richie Perry, the main character in Walter Dean Myers’s Fallen Angels (Scholastic, 1988). Thirty years after his uncle fought in Vietnam, Robin has enlisted in the service and has been sent to Iraq. Readers follow him through the first few months of the war, a period when most Americans believed it would be over in a few months. Robin has been assigned to a Civil Affairs unit, which serves as a liaison between the military and Iraqi civilians. Initially he is optimistic about his duties, but when he sees the work can’t take away the grief, fear, and anger the Iraqi people live with on a daily basis, he begins to take a more realistic view of his role, a view that soon extends to the American military in general. As with Fallen Angels , Myers is at his best when depicting the developing relationships, both good and bad, among the young soldiers in the same unit. He also excels at showing the terror and confusion that young soldiers feel when it’s not always clear who the enemy is. Robin’s letters home put an upbeat spin on everything that’s going on, eerily echoing the official reports that were coming from the field at a time when soldiers themselves began to recognize that they would be in Iraq longer than anyone else could imagine. (Ages 13 and older)

Robin "Birdy" Perry, a new army recruit from Harlem, isn't quite sure why he joined the army, but he's sure where he's headed: Iraq. Birdy and the others in the Civilian Affairs Battalion are supposed to help secure and stabilize the country and successfully interact with the Iraqi people. Officially, the code name for their maneuvers is Operation Iraqi Freedom. But the young men and women in the CA unit have a simpler name for it:WAR