More Than the Sum of Its Parts

Ann Burg's 2009 book All the Broken Pieces is one of those books that creeps into your heart.  From the cover image of a battered, torn baseball, to the story inside of a boy who has been torn and battered in a very different way, Burg's novel in verse captures moments and feelings that can be very difficult to put into words.  If this book were a baseball game, we would be getting to the game well after it had started.  Matt, born the child of a Vietnamese woman and an American soldier during the Vietnam War, enters the story already in America with his adoptive family.  The year is 1977, and although the war has ended, many of the wounds created by this conflict have not healed.  Broken pieces can be found wherever Matt looks.  Through his eyes, we see how some wounds (and the people who have them) can still hurt, some can get worse, and some can heal; so much of it depends on how we treat them. 

All the Broken Pieces is on the 2010-2011 DCF List.