Fourteen-year-old Levi Anderson is an observer. At home at his family’s Indiana farm, he writes a few lines each day about light and shadows, the movements and sounds of the animals, or his father’s face in an emotional moment. Despite being surrounded by family members, Levi feels lonely, and after his oldest siblings leave to enlist in the Union army, he faces the brunt of his remaining brother’s frustrations and abuse. So, in 1861, Levi enlists as well, heading out to find himself and his place in the world. He turns his talent for observation to watching the men with whom he marches—and, much later, he applies his eye to his experiences in the notorious Andersonville prisoner-of-war camp. McDonald’s descriptions transport readers into each beautiful, peaceful, shocking, or heart-wrenching moment: “He had fired into smoke and the smoke had swallowed the bullets, and what the bullets had done on the other side was something he would never know and did not want to know.” After being injured in battle, Levi is found by Confederate soldiers, who deliver him to Richmond, Virginia. Later, in Danville, Virginia, he finds a friend in Jim Dearborn, a young man who doesn’t mind Levi’s quiet, deliberate nature and who helps Levi come out of his shell and start to discover who he can be. The slow-paced, repetitive writing reflects the slow, repetitive nature of Levi’s life, marching with the infantry and in prison camps later on, and allows for introspection that will draw readers in. Later, Levi begins to heal from his traumatic experiences by writing a letter and starting to tell the story of what he’s been through.