MY NAME IS AMERICA: JASPER JONATHAN PIERCE

Here we are on our first My Name Is America. I tend to get slightly bored by the "boy" books in these series, because so many of them are war stories. Jasper's isn't though, being about the Pilgrims set at the same time as Mem's book, so it's really enjoyable.

Ann Rinaldi is the author on this one and one of only five female authors to tackle a MNIA book. She is a prolific historical fiction author, but only contributed this book and Dear America's most controversial book, My Heart Is on the Ground, to these series. I have read a good portion of her body of work and...it's spotty at best. She writes horrible, depressing things a lot of the time and when I get to My Heart Is on the Ground, I'm not even going to reread it or review it. I'm going to link to a review that anyone who's read the book needs to read. I used to enjoy that book until I read this review and realized just how many wrong things are in it. But I digress.

Jasper's journal is actually mostly positive, which is a far cry from the usual Rinaldi fare. It's interesting to read after Mem's because there is an overlap in characters and different events are handled different ways and from very different perspectives. I recommend reading the pair together. I favor Mem's voice a bit more, but Jasper is a good character, too.