A Million Shades of Gray

This is the powerful story of Y'Tin, a 13 year old boy living in the mountain regions of Vietnam and what happens to him following the American withdrawal. The story is told by Y'Tin, and the author has achieved a stunningly authentic voice for him. We see his fear, his courage, and his sometimes childish, sometimes wise thoughts about war, his family, and his beloved elephant. His devotion to his elephant runs throughout the story, and his faith in his future with her despite the horrific things happening around him is beautiful and sad in it's child-like naivete. This is a sometimes graphic, brutal story that is best suited for middle school and above. The images of a mass grave and ruthless murder as seen through the eyes of a child are vividly portrayed. Y'Tin's struggle with the realization that the American's were not coming back to help his village was hard for me to read. This is a part of the Vietnam story that I had conveniently forgotten about, so I am very glad that the author is helping to keep it alive for the next generation. I hope teachers latch on to this book as I truly think it could be very effective while teaching about the Vietnam war period. Other reviewers have commented on the child like writing style as being a draw back to the book's appeal to teens. I feel that any teen who picks this up will be drawn in by it. The style of writing is an integral part of Y'Tin's character and helps to serve as a counterpoint to the horrific events of the book. My congratulations to the author for once again producing such an important novel that will have lasting impact. A solid choice for teens age 12 and up, as well as any adult fan of historical fiction. The author's end notes add much to the story and will only serve to open up even more discussion.

The Vietnam Conflict ended years ago for Americans, but Kadohata brings young readers another side to the war. Through the eyes of a young boy whose dream is to be an elephant trainer, we learn much about the culture, pain, and character of the Central Highlands people of Vietnam. At first young Y'Tin's life looks promising and fun-filled as he and two other boys spend their days training their elephants. When the North Vietnamese invade their village, Y'Tin finds himself in a fight for survival. Like a millions shades of gray, there are no easy decisions to be made. Y'Tin finds he must made a choice that is right for him, and his elephant. The author takes the reader on a memorable journey!

Cynthia Kadohata won my heart (and my students' hearts) with CRACKER: THE BEST DOG IN VIETNAM, the story of a working dog and the young soldier who trains and travels with him throughout the war. In this new work of historical fiction, she takes us back to Vietnam through the eyes of a young elephant trainer whose family is forced to flee into the jungle when the enemy raids their village, after the Americans have left. Once again, the relationship between people and animals shines as a light in a darkened world.

"He lay on his back as the first mtu appeared in the sky, sparkling shyly. The war was coming just like the mtu came, barely sparkling at first and then glowing stronger and stronger. And then as darkness came, all you could see were the mtu. He listened to the leaves in the jungle rustling with the wind. He loved the sound suddenly. He loved the wind on his face. He loved lying on the ground quietly. Tomas, Y'Siu, and Y'Tin liked to lie on the ground near the elephants because it felt risky but also comforting. The elephants could step on them -- but they wouldn't. That was elephants for you." Over the past month, I've been working on a research project requiring the retrieval of vast quantities of information -- bibliographic; biographic; educational philosophy and state standards-related stuff; cultural trivia; song lyrics; and more. I am totally in my glory because being knowledgeable of, comfortable with, and practiced at tapping into the vast array of Internet and online database tools,and online word processing tools, available in the twenty-first century means being able to achieve in a few moments what a dozen years ago would have required months of time and travel and reading. Much of what I'm accomplishing in a just few keystrokes simply would not have been possible to accomplish in the past. It gives me such a rush -- on a daily basis -- to be able to ride the waves of these radical, world-changing, technological advances. I took a bus trip in to Manhattan the other day. Much of the route we traveled consisted of six-, eight-, and ten- lane highways that did not exist in any form when I was a young child here on Long Island in the early Sixties. Back then, I grew up flying kites in cow pastures that turned to housing developments almost two generations ago. It is this sort of progress that I have to accept as being the way of our world. I mean, the population boom that instigated those roads and the millions of new homes that have been built on Long Island and everywhere else in my lifetime are the result of you and I -- along with billions of other people -- being born worldwide. "We have met the enemy and he is us." -- Pogo The downside of the manner in which the world has radically evolved over the course of my lifetime is that the very ability of the planet to support life is now being threatened. While the true degree and growth of that threat may be open to debate, there is no question that the world's largest and most glorious mammals have been on the firing line, relentlessly falling victim to the insatiable global pressures of human population growth and the related agricultural development and resource exploitation. And so it is, that upon reading A MILLION SHADES OF GRAY, a hauntingly brutal piece of historical fiction set in Vietnam in the mid-Seventies, it is not only the slaughter of hundreds of mountain tribal people that leaves me aching. It is, even more so, the unknown fate of the three el

For many Americans, no matter their age, the Vietnam War has receded into distant memory or even the realm of myth. Outside of the iconic Vietnam Veterans Memorial and dwindling accounts in films and books, this 1960s and '70s-era war has been subsumed by more recent conflicts. Even for Americans who remember the war, their knowledge of it probably ceases at the point when the U.S. troops withdrew from what seemed an increasingly hopeless and unpopular situation. But what happened to the South Vietnamese people who were left behind when the Americans withdrew to cut their own losses? Cynthia Kadohata explores this devastating question in A MILLION SHADES OF GRAY. Thirteen-year-old Y'Tin has one passion: elephants. Y'Tin is an expert elephant trainer, the youngest handler in his village. He is not so enthusiastic about school, though --- he would rather spend his energies training his beloved elephant, Lady, with whom he has a close, intuitive relationship, without the violence and mistrust that characterizes some other handlers' treatment of their animals. Y'Tin's goal is to open his own school someday --- an elephant training school, that is, the first of its kind in Vietnam. But history might have its own plans for Y'Tin. His Dega tribe has long had a relationship with the American troops fighting the North Vietnamese --- many men like Y'Tin's own father have assisted the American Special Forces in exchange for a promise that the Americans will always defend the Dega if the North Vietnamese break their treaty agreement and attack these mountain-dwelling South Vietnamese people. In the wake of the American withdrawal, however, the U.S. troops seem to have forgotten about their promise to the Dega. And when the North Vietnamese attack Y'Tin's home, nearly half of the villagers are killed, and many others --- including Y'Tin --- are captured, forced to perform manual labor (including digging mass graves) at penalty of death. In Cynthia Kadohata's well-researched coming-of-age story, Y'Tin matures from an impetuous boy into a less trusting, more cautious, but still goal-oriented young man. At the end of the novel, his future is not quite what he had imagined, but he is still able to find hope despite the horrific things he has seen and done. Kadohata pulls no punches in her depiction of war. In her compassionate portrayal of Y'Tin and his people, she vividly brings immediacy to a conflict that too many people have forgotten about or never really knew. --- Reviewed by Norah Piehl