Slap Your Sides

Book excerpt: World War II comes to a small Pennsylvania town in this thought-provoking novel about a peace-loving Quaker family War may be raging in Europe, but in Sweet Creek, Pennsylvania, peace is being waged. Bud Shoemaker is vehemently opposed to the war when he registers for the draft as a conscientious objector. No one except his Quaker family shares Bud’s pacifist views—although his thirteen-year-old brother, Jubal, wonders what kind of Quaker he’ll be when it comes time for him to enlist. Jubal loves and believes in his brother, even if the whole town—including Daria Daniel, the girl Jubal secretly loves—doesn’t. With everyone calling Bud a coward, Jubal’s family is slowly being torn apart. But when an unexpected, vicious act forces Jubal to grapple with man’s penchant for violence, he has to grow up fast in a community in which killing becomes the measure of a man. Slap Your Sides is a riveting tale of courage and conscience that delivers a timeless, universal message about what makes a hero and what it really means to be a patriot. This ebook features an illustrated personal history of M. E. Kerr including rare images from the author’s collection.